[Paraview] Correctly Parallel Processing of OpenFoam results using pvserver

[Armin Wehrfritz]

As it was mentioned already, there are two independently developed
OpenFOAM reader for ParaView.

ParaView comes with its own built-in OpenFOAM reader (vtkOpenFOAMReader,
using the file extension .foam), and OpenFOAM has and alternative reader
(PV4FoamReader, using the file extension .OpenFOAM). OpenFOAM comes with
a little wrapper script called paraFoam, which creates/deletes a dummy
file with the respective extension and opens that file with ParaView.
Try "paraFoam -builtin" to use ParaView's built-in reader, or just
create a .foam file and open it with ParaView.

I generally use ParaView's built-in reader ("feels" faster and can read
decomposed cases :)) and hence I can use always the latest ParaView
version. But just to mention, if you have a heavy dataset also the
latest ParaView version won't be miraculously faster. Quite often the
biggest bottleneck is the disk IO. Also, OpenFOAM data is always
unstructured, which is slow in any case, no matter which reader or
version you use.

If you work a lot with OpenFOAM "zones" or "sets", one reader or the
other may be better suited. I rarely encounter any missing functionality
in ParaView's built-in reader, meaning you can visualise the usual flow
and Lagrangian fields. Just give it a try you can easily switch.

-Armin



On 10/02/2015 03:27 PM, Leonard Cassady wrote:
> Hi,
>
>    I didn't realize that there are 2 different extensions for OpenFOAM
> projects.  I also didn't realize that Paraview had a native OpenFoam
> reader.  What functionality (normally supplied by OpenFOAM paraFoam ) is
> lost when using Paraview without starting with paraFoam?  I'm asking
> because I've heard that ParaView 4.4 is extremely fast and would like to
> test it out with OpenFoam files but not paraFoam.
>
> Thanks
>
> On Thu, Oct 1, 2015 at 7:44 PM, <ronald.fowler at stfc.ac.uk
> <mailto:ronald.fowler at stfc.ac.uk>> wrote:
>
>     Hi,
>     It is simple to create a .foam file; just do "touch xxx.foam" in the
>     working directory. Then point ParaView at that file and it will use
>     the builtin openFoam reader which should offer the
>     reconstructed/decomposed option. The empty file just tells ParaView
>     which reader to use based on the extension.
>     Ron
>
>
>     ________________________________
>     From: ParaView [paraview-bounces at paraview.org
>     <mailto:paraview-bounces at paraview.org>] on behalf of Leonard Cassady
>     [lenny at intuitivemachines.com <mailto:lenny at intuitivemachines.com>]
>     Sent: 30 September 2015 21:50
>     To: David E DeMarle
>     Cc: paraview at paraview.org <mailto:paraview at paraview.org>
>     Subject: Re: [Paraview] Correctly Parallel Processing of OpenFoam
>     results using pvserver
>
>     David,
>
>         I do not have a chooser for "case type".  I found a web page
>     that shows the "case type" chooser.  They were opening a .foam
>     file.  I have .OpenFOAM case.
>
>         Should I consider converting the foam to VTK?
>
>
>
>     On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 2:59 PM, David E DeMarle
>     <dave.demarle at kitware.com
>     <mailto:dave.demarle at kitware.com><mailto:dave.demarle at kitware.com
>     <mailto:dave.demarle at kitware.com>>> wrote:
>     Looping the list back in to the thread.
>
>     Look on the properties panel when you open the file and before you
>     hit "Apply" look for a chooser for "Case Type". The default is
>     "Reconstructed Case" so change it to "Decomposed Case".
>
>
>     David E DeMarle
>     Kitware, Inc.
>     R&D Engineer
>     21 Corporate Drive
>     Clifton Park, NY 12065-8662
>     Phone: 518-881-4909 <tel:518-881-4909><tel:518-881-4909
>     <tel:518-881-4909>>
>
>     On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 3:51 PM, Leonard Cassady
>     <lenny at intuitivemachines.com
>     <mailto:lenny at intuitivemachines.com><mailto:lenny at intuitivemachines.com
>     <mailto:lenny at intuitivemachines.com>>> wrote:
>     Dave,
>
>     I don't know how to switch to decomposed type.
>
>     Thanks,
>
>
>     On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 2:47 PM, David E DeMarle
>     <dave.demarle at kitware.com
>     <mailto:dave.demarle at kitware.com><mailto:dave.demarle at kitware.com
>     <mailto:dave.demarle at kitware.com>>> wrote:
>     As I recall, reconstructed means that the root node does all the
>     work. Switch to decomposed type in the reader and let us know how it
>     works then.
>
>     thanks
>
>
>
>     David E DeMarle
>     Kitware, Inc.
>     R&D Engineer
>     21 Corporate Drive
>     Clifton Park, NY 12065-8662
>     Phone: 518-881-4909 <tel:518-881-4909><tel:518-881-4909
>     <tel:518-881-4909>>
>
>     On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 3:35 PM, Leonard Cassady
>     <lenny at intuitivemachines.com
>     <mailto:lenny at intuitivemachines.com><mailto:lenny at intuitivemachines.com
>     <mailto:lenny at intuitivemachines.com>>> wrote:
>     I'm attempting to use pvserver to accelerate the post-processing of
>     my openfoam solution. I have a 48 core machine. I have correctly
>     installed and compiled a parallel copy of paraview 4.1.0 with
>     OpenFOAM 2.4.x. If I open a simple .obj file I can see that
>     different parts of the surface are rendered using different
>     processors. I can also see that the memory is shared among the
>     parallel processes.
>
>     When I open a reconstructed openFOAM solution with 20 million cells
>     with paraview connected to 40 process pvserver, the image seems to
>     be rendered (or processed) with only 1 processor. Is there a step
>     that I'm missing to parallelize the reconstructed Openfoam data
>     files for rendering?
>
>     --
>     Leonard Cassady PhD
>     Senior Development Engineer
>     Intuitive Machines
>     Cell: 281-755-2553 <tel:281-755-2553><tel:281-755-2553
>     <tel:281-755-2553>>
>
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>
>
>     --
>     Leonard Cassady PhD
>     Senior Development Engineer
>     Intuitive Machines
>     Cell: 281-755-2553 <tel:281-755-2553><tel:281-755-2553
>     <tel:281-755-2553>>
>
>
>
>
>     --
>     Leonard Cassady PhD
>     Senior Development Engineer
>     Intuitive Machines
>     Cell: 281-755-2553 <tel:281-755-2553>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Leonard Cassady PhD
> Senior Development Engineer
> Intuitive Machines
> Cell: 281-755-2553
>
>
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