[vtkusers] FEM meshes to VTK converters

[David C Thompson]

> I am looking for a file converter to convert 3d meshes/volumes
> produced by one of the following FEM software kits to VTK file format.
> I am not particulary concerned by which one.
> 
> LS-DYNA
> MSC.PATRAN
> I-DEAS
> ABAQUS
> ANYSYS
> 
> Does anyone one know of any such converter or have written one
> themselves?
I've written a VTK reader for LS-DYNA output decks. You can use it to
read LS-DYNA results directly or you could create a small script to
convert LS-DYNA files to VTK's multiblock format. For example, here's
one written in vtkpython:

from vtk import *
lr = vtkLSDynaReader()
lr.SetDatabaseDirectory('/path/to/d3plotfiles/' )
mw = vtkXMLMultiGroupDataWriter()
mw.SetInputConnection( lr.GetOutputPort() )
mw.SetFileName( '/path/to/output.vtm' )
mw.Write()

Note that the vtkLSDynaReader class does not read geometry from the
input deck (.k) file; it only retrieves part names from the input deck
(if it exists). The output (d3plot) files are required even to examine
the input mesh.

	David