[Paraview] Suggested format for open unstructured CFD including surface geometry?

[A. Austen]

Hello all.

I'm interested in using ParaView  to view unstructured CFD solutions. 
I'm currently using a proprietary flow solver which outputs results in
FieldView-Unstructured format.  The nice thing about that format is that
it allows the inclusion of not just the solution grid, but also all the
boundary surface geometry.

However, I'm not crazy about being stuck with FieldView as my only
option, so I'd like to write a translator to output an equivalent
dataset in a more open format.  I've looked at CGNS, but it expects the
user to link to external CAD files to provide the surface geometry.  Is
there a recommended file format supported by VTK that is well-documented
which includes the capability to include the surface geometry as a
triangular surface mesh?  The geometric body definitions in my existing
FieldView-Unstructured files consist of triangular surface meshes, a la
FACET or STL, and in fact starts out as a FACET input into the flow
solver.

Another question is if ParaView allows such a surface to clip the mesh
such that it would be possible to view a coordinate plane, but only the
portion contained within one of the boundary surfaces?

Thank you.

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