<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Re: [Paraview] File formats for particle visualization</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11pt'>Any file format that holds unstructured grid or poly data and supports 0D cells (vertices, points, spheres, or whatever you want to call them) is sufficient. If the particles remain consistent from one time step to the next, then I recommend the Exodus format because it has direct support for time and you can place everything in a single file. However, Exodus assumes that the topology of your data does not change, so it does not directly support particles that are born or die.<BR>
<BR>
If you do have particles that are born and die, I’ve heard of success with the EnSight format. If at all possible, also write out “global ids” that uniquely identify the particles from one timestep to the next. If you do not have that, it limits what ParaView can do with the particles.<BR>
<BR>
-Ken<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
On 7/16/09 7:37 PM, "Scott, W Alan" <<a href="wascott@sandia.gov">wascott@sandia.gov</a>> wrote:<BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11pt'><FONT FACE="Arial">I have a user that runs particle physics simulations and wants to write this into files that ParaView can easily read.<BR>
<BR>
What are good file formats for particle simulations?<BR>
<BR>
Thanks,<BR>
<BR>
Alan<BR>
<BR>
--------------------------------------------------------<BR>
W. Alan Scott<BR>
ParaView Support Manager<BR>
<BR>
GAITS<BR>
Sandia National Laboratories, MS 0822<BR>
Org 9326 - Building 880 A1-C<BR>
(505) 284-0932 FAX (505) 845-0833<BR>
---------------------------------------------------------<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><BR>
</FONT></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11pt'><FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><BR>
</FONT></SPAN><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT FACE="Consolas, Courier New, Courier"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'><BR>
**** Kenneth Moreland<BR>
*** Sandia National Laboratories<BR>
*********** <BR>
*** *** *** email: <a href="kmorel@sandia.gov">kmorel@sandia.gov</a><BR>
** *** ** phone: (505) 844-8919<BR>
*** web: <a href="http://www.cs.unm.edu/~kmorel">http://www.cs.unm.edu/~kmorel</a><BR>
</SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11pt'><BR>
</SPAN></FONT>
</BODY>
</HTML>