[Paraview] Good file format for point data on a surface over 60, 000 timesteps

[Samuel Key]

Tyson,

You won't get a common answer, but here is my $00.02. The EnSight format 
has a nice feature that every variable has its own file. So, each 
'sample point' will have its own file. The file names can be as you 
want, numeric or alphabetic. The EnSight format has a geometry file, but 
if you want to use single vertex cells it won't become very large.  If 
you want to be a little more graphical, you could use 64 4-node quads 
with their respective coordinate positions. Additionally, you could add 
a relatively coarse mesh of the structure. (ParaView has a Filter that 
will take a point set (your 64 single-point cells) and construct a 
triangular mesh to provide some geometry.

The EnSight format uses a meta-file (aka *.case file) that references 
all of the files in the datum set, example attached. It will be some 
work the first time around, but well worth it in my opinion.

(I use this file-format myself for million-element 3-D meshes for 
transient dynamic simulations. I would not leave home without it.)

Samuel Key
FMA Development
1005 39th Ave NE
Great Falls, MT 59404



On 11/17/2017 11:44 AM, Tyson Whitehead wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm trying to help one of our users (HPC center) use ParaView to work
> with their wind tunnel data.  They have a large number of time samples
> (60,000) from a series of surfaces with from a small number of sample
> points (64).
>
> The sample points are irregular but structured as they are laid out to
> be more dense in areas that should see more differences (i.e., at best
> you could say it was a non-uniform grid with several of the points not
> used).
>
> What file format should this data be put in to import into ParaView?
>
> The VTK legacy formats and XML description formats seem painful to use
> with this number of timesteps and I believe (please correct if wrong)
> that the NetCDF wants a regular grid.
>
> Thanks!  -Tyson
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-------------- next part --------------
FORMAT
type: ensight gold
GEOMETRY
model:                   1  1  fmaego.results.geom    change_coords_only
VARIABLE
vector per node:         1  1  Displacement          fmaego.results.ndis
vector per node:         1  1  Velocity              fmaego.results.nvel
vector per node:         1  1  Acceleration          fmaego.results.nacc
scalar per element:      1  1  Material              fmaego.results.emat
scalar per element:      1  1  Material-State        fmaego.results.esta
scalar per element:      1  1  Pressure              fmaego.results.eprs
scalar per element:      1  1  Bulk-Strain           fmaego.results.elnv
scalar per element:      1  1  Strain-Energy-Density fmaego.results.esed
scalar per element:      1  1  Effective-Stress      fmaego.results.edev
vector per element:      1  1  Stress*Vel            fmaego.results.estv
tensor symm per element: 1  1  Stress                fmaego.results.estr
TIME
time set:                1
number of steps:       101
time values:                  1.412425480266E-08      2.400133725957E-04
      4.800116413781E-04      7.200087675218E-04      9.600085065557E-04
      1.200013506904E-03      1.440004395631E-03      1.680012453687E-03
      1.920003546411E-03      2.160008706146E-03      2.400002268722E-03
      2.640000825978E-03      2.880008516105E-03      3.120007260160E-03
      3.360004355506E-03      3.600011259104E-03      3.840002535435E-03
      4.080002209989E-03      4.320008836543E-03      4.560001245923E-03
      4.800013108817E-03      5.040001157019E-03      5.280014080032E-03
      5.520013787104E-03      5.760010120856E-03      6.000006744585E-03
      6.240010362247E-03      6.480011393759E-03      6.720005078932E-03
      6.960009814293E-03      7.200003845679E-03      7.440002044729E-03
      7.680008165642E-03      7.920003445528E-03      8.160001173762E-03
      8.400007812238E-03      8.640000624252E-03      8.880000733655E-03
      9.120008566836E-03      9.360009135538E-03      9.600005315679E-03
      9.840004635407E-03      1.008001339743E-02      1.032000754625E-02
      1.056001376543E-02      1.080001393196E-02      1.104001032624E-02
      1.128000001058E-02      1.152000634945E-02      1.176000815323E-02
      1.200000831238E-02      1.224000912002E-02      1.248000571827E-02
      1.272000588352E-02      1.296001289990E-02      1.320000451785E-02
      1.344000690212E-02      1.368000696938E-02      1.392000271408E-02
      1.416000989430E-02      1.440000070735E-02      1.464000160285E-02
      1.488000797845E-02      1.512000435611E-02      1.536000661064E-02
      1.560000307197E-02      1.584000938572E-02      1.608000643769E-02
      1.632000546980E-02      1.656000289760E-02      1.680000908982E-02
      1.704001399463E-02      1.728000131552E-02      1.752001190351E-02
      1.776000184304E-02      1.800000734090E-02      1.824001312450E-02
      1.848000906825E-02      1.872000925159E-02      1.896000027545E-02
      1.920000474568E-02      1.944000463108E-02      1.968000467199E-02
      1.992001225632E-02      2.016001218486E-02      2.040001311790E-02
      2.064000316635E-02      2.088001271302E-02      2.112001167247E-02
      2.136000873498E-02      2.160001315623E-02      2.184000679392E-02
      2.208000274632E-02      2.232000111492E-02      2.256000735185E-02
      2.280000353838E-02      2.304000227235E-02      2.328000046701E-02
      2.352000585656E-02      2.376000607798E-02      2.400000198044E-02
FILE
file set:                   1
number of steps:          101