About VisIt
VisIt is an Open Source, interactive, scalable, visualization, animation and analysis tool. From Unix, Windows or Mac workstations, users can interactively visualize and analyze data ranging in scale from small (<101 core) desktop-sized projects to large (>105 core) leadership-class computing facility simulation campaigns. Users can quickly generate visualizations, animate them through time, manipulate them with a
variety of operators and mathematical expressions, and save the resulting images and animations for presentations. VisIt contains a rich set of visualization features to enable users to view a wide variety of data including scalar and vector fields defined on two- and three-dimensional (2D and 3D) structured, adaptive and unstructured meshes. Owing to its customizeable plugin design, VisIt is capabable of visualizing data from over 120 different scientific data formats (see this partial list). [See a table of key features and a complete table of the tool's features.]
What's New
VisIt is a distributed, parallel visualization and graphical analysis tool for data defined on two- and three-dimensional (2D and 3D) meshes. Version 3.1.4, which can be downloaded from this site, contains over two dozen bug-fixes and new features. For a complete list of changes see the VisIt 3.1.4 Release Notes. [See the archive of releases for more information.]
History
VisIt was originally developed by the Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Simulation and Computing Initiative (ASCI) to visualize and analyze the results of terascale simulations. It was designed with a high degree of modularity to support rapid deployment of new visualization technology. This includes a plugin architecture for custom readers, data operators and plots as well as the ability to support multiple different user interfaces. Following a prototyping effort in the summer of 2000, an initial version of VisIt was developed and released in the fall of 2002. Since then, over 100 database readers, 60 operators and 20 plots have been added to the open source code. In addition, commercial, government and academic organizations in the US, Europe and elsewhere have developed and maintained proprietary plugins and user interfaces for their own needs. Although the primary driving force behind the original development of VisIt was for visualizing ASCI terascale data, VisIt has also proven to be well suited for visualizing smaller scale data from simulations on desktop systems. Because of its applicability beyond visualizing terascale data, we are making VisIt freely available as a BSD licensed open source product.
The following table presents key features with descriptions of VisIt. A complete list of features is presented on a second table below.
Key Features of VisIt
| Feature | Description/Example |
|---|---|
|
Has rich feature set for scalar, vector, and tensor field visualization |
VisIt's visualization capabilities are primarily grouped into two categories:
VisIt handles 2D and 3D data equally well. VisIt also has the ability to animate data, allowing users to see the time evolution of their data. A complete table of visualization features is presented below. |
|
Provides qualitative and quantitative visualization and analysis |
VisIt is also a powerful analysis tool. It provides support for derived fields, which allow new fields to be calculated using existing fields. For example, if a dataset contains a velocity field, it is possible to define a new field that is the velocity magnitude. VisIt's quantitative analysis tools include:
VisIt also supports a generalized query interface, which allows you to query derived quantities such as volume or surface area. See data exploration screen shots. |
|
Supports multiple mesh types |
VisIt provides support for a wide range of computational meshes, including two- and three-dimensional point, rectilinear, curvilinear, and unstructured meshes. In addition, VisIt supports structured AMR meshes and CSG meshes. See screenshots of 2D and 3D images produced by VisIt. |
|
Powerful, full-featured graphical user interface (GUI) |
VisIt's graphical user interface (see screen shots) allows novice users to quickly get started visualizing their data, as well as allowing power users access to advanced features. VisIt automatically creates time-based animations from data sets that contain multiple time steps. In addition, it also has a keyframe animation capability that allows users to create sophisticated animations. VisIt's on-line help system contains a hyperlinked version of the User’s Manual. VisIt allows users to pan, zoom, and rotate objects interactively using the mouse. It also gives users the ability to interactively size and position geometric objects such as planes and spheres. |
|
Parallel and distributed architecture for extreme scale visualization |
VisIt employs a distributed and parallel architecture in order to handle extremely large data sets interactively. VisIt's rendering and data processing capabilities are split into viewer and engine components that may be distributed across multiple machines:
|
|
Interfaces with C++, Python, and Java |
VisIt also supports C++, Python and Java interfaces. The C++ and Java interfaces make it possible to provide alternate user interfaces for VisIt or allow existing C++ or Java applications to add visualization support. The Python scripting interface gives users the ability to batch process data using a powerful scripting language. This feature can be used to create extremely sophisticated animations or implement regression suites. It also allows simulation systems that use Python as a back-plane to easily integrate visualization capabilities into their systems. |
|
Extensible with dynamically loaded plug-ins |
VisIt achieves extensibility through the use of dynamically loaded plugins. All of VisIt's plots, operators, and database readers are implemented as plugins and are loaded at run-time from the plugin directory. New plugins can be added simply by installing them in this directory. VisIt comes with a graphical plugin creation tool, which greatly simplifies the process of creating new plugins. The user describes the properties of the plugin and then the tool generates most of the code necessary to implement the plugin. For example, in the case of an operator, the plugin creation tool creates the code necessary for the graphical user interface attribute window; the C++, Python, and Java interfaces; and the code necessary to interface to VisIt. The only code you need to write is the C++ code that actually performs the operation. |
|
Multi-platform support |
VisIt operates on UNIX (Irix, Tru64, AIX, Linux, Solaris), MacOS X (10.3, 10.4), and Windows platforms. Software for these platforms can be downloaded. |
|
Open Source |
VisIt's source code is open source and freely available under the BSD license, allowing programmers to read, redistribute, and modify the source code. |
|
Customer support |
The visit-users [at] ornl.gov mailing list offers responsive customer support. For users associated with SciDAC, GNEP or ASC, e-mail support is available from visit-help-scidac [at] ornl.gov, visit-help-gnep [at] ornl.gov, and visit-help-asc [at] ornl.gov. For ASC VisIt users, a customer support phone line is available. Dial 42-VIS to talk to a VisIt developer Monday through Friday 8-12, 1-5 Pacific Time. |
Complete List of VisIt Features
| Plots | Operators | General |
|---|---|---|
| Contour | Slices (cone, plane, sphere) | Parallel versions available |
| Mesh | Index Select | Animation |
| Vector | Iso-surface | Movie-making |
| Subset | Onion Peel | Direct manipulation tools |
| Pseudocolor | Reflect | Pick & Query |
| Surface | Threshold | Line-out |
| Curve | Transform | Status bars |
| Volume | Replicate | Interruptable |
| Scatter | Resample | Remote data access |
| Spreadsheet | Revolve | Fault tolerant |
| Molecule | Elevate | Scalable rendering |
| Parallel Axis | Project | Online help |
| Histogram | Displace | Read data directly from simulation memory* |
| Label | Subset restriction | Material interface reconstruction |
| Truecolor | Expressions | Reads over 60 different file formats |
| Tensor | Scriptable |
* When VisIt's libsim has been used to instrument the simulation.
For any additional questions, send e-mail to visit-users [at] ornl.gov (VisIt Users).
VisIt Downloads
Executables—This page contains versions of VisIt that you can download for Unix and Windows systems.
Source Code—This page contains the VisIt source code that you can download if you would like to build a version of VisIt for another system or to modify the source code.
Manuals—This page contains the user's manuals that are available, including a getting started manual and user's manual.
Data Files—This page contains links to interesting datasets that you can plot with VisIt.
If you use VisIt to generate images and/or movies please cite VisIt in your paper and the credits of your movie. Doing so helps us sustain funding for future improvements and on going maintenance. Please use the following acknowledgement and send us references to any publications, presentations, or successful funding applications that make use of DOE software.
- VisIt Citation [bibtex citation]
VisIt is supported by the Department of Energy with funding from the Advanced Simulation and Computing Program and the Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing Program.
What's New in VisIt
November, 2020 - VisIt 3.1.4 released
VisIt is a distributed, parallel visualization and graphical analysis tool for data defined on two- and three-dimensional (2D and 3D) meshes. Version 3.1.4 contains over two dozen bug-fixes and new features. For a complete list of changes see the VisIt 3.1.4 Release Notes
September, 2020 - VisIt 3.1.3 released
VisIt 3.1.3 contains over three dozen bug-fixes and new features. For a complete list of changes see the VisIt 3.1.3 Release Notes.
May, 2020 - VisIt 3.1.2 released
VisIt 3.1.2 contains over two dozen bug-fixes and new features. For a complete list of changes see the VisIt 3.1.2 Release Notes.
February, 2020 - VisIt 3.1.1 released
VisIt 3.1.1 contains about twenty bug-fixes and new features. For a complete list of changes see the VisIt 3.1.1 Release Notes.
December, 2019 - VisIt 3.1 released
VisIt 3.1 contains many bug-fixes and new features. For a complete list of changes see the VisIt 3.1 Release Notes.
1. Added and enhanced several readers.
Added readers for Xolotl and openPMD files. Made significant enhancements to the ADIOS2 reader, including basing it on ADIOS 2.5. Rewrote the Mili reader. It now supports a Griz-like menu, material variables, global variables, shared variables, and integration points.
2. VisIt is now available on a greater variety of Linux platforms.
VisIt is now available on Centos 8, Debian 9, Fedora 27, Ubuntu 16, Ubuntu 18 and Ubuntu 19. These versions include parallel support by way of MPICH.
3. Significantly improved the performance of queries over time.
The query over time performance has been improved by roughly a factor of 100 due to eliminiting multiple round trip communications between the viewer and compute engine per time step.
[Go to Archive of Releases]
Samples of Some Things VisIt Can Do
- Plotting Methods—VisIt contains a rich set of visualization methods for visualizing scientific data.
- Operators—VisIt supports various operators to visualize data within a three-dimensional volume. These include displaying fields on surfaces within a volume (cone, sphere, plane, and more), removing portions of the three-dimensional volume (clip), displaying fields within a localized region (onion-peel), and displaying portions of the volume that meet specific criteria.
- Data Exploration—VisIt allows the ability to provide quantitative as well as qualitative information from a scientific data set.
- Graphical User Interface (GUI)—VisIt has a powerful, yet easy-to-use graphical user interface.
Plotting Methods
The contour plot (left) is used to display lines of constant temperature on a planar slice through a simulation of a gas-burning furnace. The pseudocolor plot (right) is used to map temperature to color on the same planar slice.
The contour plot (left) is used to display surfaces of constant value through a three-dimensional volume. The volume plot (right) allows the potential to visualize all the data within a three-dimensional volume by mapping scalar values to an opacity and color value.
The vector plot allows the ability to visualize vector fields by placing arrow glyphs within the vector field indicating direction and magnitude. The first image shows vectors on a planar slice of an air flow over a box. The second image is a close up showing the turbulant flow directly behind the box.
The subset plot is used to display different parts of an assembly. Portions of the assembly can be selectively turned on and off. The first image shows an entire crash impact dummy, while the second image shows only the hips and upper body.
The subset plot is used to display different parts of an assembly. Portions of the assembly can be selectively turned on and off. The first image shows an entire crash impact dummy, while the second image shows only the hips and upper body.
Operators
VisIt supports various operators to visualize data within a three-dimensional volume. These include displaying fields on surfaces within a volume (cone, sphere, plane, and more), removing portions of the three-dimensional volume (clip), displaying fields within a localized region (onion-peel), and displaying portions of the volume that meet specific criteria.
The cone operator is used to display data on the surface of a cone. The first image shows a field on the surface of the volume, the second image shows the field on the surface of a cone, and the third shows the field on the same surface mapped to a two-dimensional coordinate system.
The clip operator is used to remove regions of a three-dimensional volume. The first image shows the entire volume, the second image shows a rectangular region removed from the volume, and the third image shows a spherical region removed from the volume.
The cone operator is used to display data on the surface of a cone. The first image shows a field on the surface of the volume, the second image shows the field on the surface of a cone, and the third shows the field on the same surface mapped to a two-dimensional coordinate system.
The threshold operator is used to display cells where a scalar field value falls within a specified range. The first image shows the entire three-dimensional volume. The second image shows only the cells where the scalar field values are above a specified value and below another specified value.
Data Exploration
VisIt allows the ability to provide quantitative as well as qualitative information from a scientific data set.
The line-out creates curves of field values as a function of distance along the line. The first image shows the scalar field and the lines through the data used to create the curves. The second image shows the resulting curves.
The pick operation returns information about selected points including location, cell ID, node IDs, and field values. The first image shows the scalar field and the points that were picked. The pick output window shows the information about the selected points.
VisIt allows you to gather quantitative information from a scientific dataset through queries. A query is a type of calculation that can return values from a dataset or values that are calculated using data from the dataset. Some queries can even be executed for all of the time states in a scientific dataset to yield a Curve plot of the query's behavior over time.
In addition to its many visualization capabilities, VisIt provides a Spreadsheet plot for direct examination of a scientific dataset. The Spreadsheet plot displays data in table format and allows users to slice through 3D data interactively. The visualization window displays a tracer surface showing the source of the data displayed in the table. The spreadsheet appearance can be changed by setting the numeric precision or by coloring the numbers according to a color table.
Explore multivariate data using VisIt's ParallelAxis plot and locate trends and interactions between variables. The ParallelAxis plot can be used with the Extents tool to highlight regions of interest along each variable axis, in effect restricting the data to only the pieces that fit within the defined ranges on each axis. The Extents tool can be used in conjunction with the Threshold operator to show only the pieces of the scientific dataset that match the selected regions in the ParallelAxis plot.
VisIt contains tools to interactively position geometric shapes used by the operators. The first image shows the plane tool, used to interactively position a plane. The second image shows the sphere tool, used to interactively position a sphere. VisIt also includes a box tool, a line tool, a point tool, and an extents tool.
Graphical User Interface
VisIt has a powerful, yet easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI).
The VisIt graphical user interface consists of a main control panel and one or more visualization windows. The control panel consists of a file selection area, active plots area, and a notepad area for posting attribute windows.
The Keyframing window is used to create sophisticated animations. In this simple example, pressure is shown at the first time state for 30 frames, followed by the time evolution of pressure for 70 frames.
The help window provides complete documentation on VisIt. The information can be accessed either through the table of contents or an index. It is also possible to bookmark frequently accessed portions of the document.
The volume plot attributes window (left) is a powerful tool for setting the volume transform function used to map field values to opacity and color. The window contains a color map and an opacity map editor. The image above shows the resulting image.
The Save movie wizard (below) simplifies the process of making complicated movies by allowing you to design and use movie templates. Movie templates consist of VisIt visualizations and special effects. Movie templates are created by mapping visualization sequences to movie viewports and then adding transition and compositing sequences. Movie templates can be saved for later use and can be used with different data files to create movies of suites of simulation runs.
This page shows examples of visualizations that have been created with VisIt. Some visualizations have been contributed by VisIt customers. If you would like to submit an image for the gallery, please send an image and a description of the visualization to the brugger1 [at] llnl.gov (VisIt Webmaster).
Click on any of the visualizations below to view a larger image.
If you need help using VisIt or have questions about VisIt, send e-mail to one of the VisIt mailing lists. There are two open mailing lists open to anyone and three closed mailing lists for users associated with an organization that funds VisIt.
The two open mailing lists are:
- visit-users [at] ornl.gov
- visit-developers [at] ornl.gov
The first mailing list is a venue for discussion among the VisIt community at large and is for users to ask questions and post suggestions about various aspects of VisIt, in topics anywhere from getting the code running to saving movies. The second mailing list is a venue for discussion among the VisIt developer community and is for developers to ask questions and post suggestions about various aspects of VisIt, including build issues, writing plugins, and any other aspects of VisIt development. You must subscribe to these lists before you can send and receive e-mail from them. Go to the visit-users list page to subscribe to the user list and go to visit-developers list page to subscribe to the developers list. If you can't access these web pages, you can subscribe by sending a blank email to visit-users-subscribe [at] elist.ornl.gov or visit-developers-subscribe [at] elist.ornl.gov, respectively.
If you are associated with SciDAC, GNEP or ASC, then you should send your questions to the appropriate closed mailing list:
- visit-help-scidac [at] ornl.gov
- visit-help-gnep [at] ornl.gov
- visit-help-asc [at] ornl.gov
For ASC VisIt users, a customer support phone line is available. Dial 42-VIS to talk to a VisIt developer Monday through Friday 8-12, 1-5 Pacific Time.
VisIt can run on a variety of platforms from PCs running Windows or Linux all the way up to supercomputers running variants of Linux. The following operating systems are supported:
- Windows 7, 8, 10
- Linux (Redhat)
- MacOS X 10.13
VisIt should perform well on just about any Linux or Windows system as long as you follow these guidelines:
- You should have at least 32 gigabytes (GB) of memory for your system. The actual amount of memory you will need depends on the size of the dataset you will be visualizing, but having plenty of memory will ensure that you don't suffer large performance degradations.
- You should make sure that you install the graphics driver provided by the vendor of your graphics card so that you can get full hardware-accelerated graphics rendering. The standard Linux distributions come with a generic driver that will work on all systems, but this will not give top performance. If you plan to use Linux and have not yet purchased a graphics card, you should check that the card you are considering purchasing has a driver optimized for Linux.
- If you run VisIt on Windows, you must use Windows 7, 8, or 10.
VisIt can read over 100 file formats. The table below lists some of the most popular data file formats that VisIt can currently read in and visualize. For a nearly complete list of supported file formats, look at the File formats table at visitusers.org. Each file format is read in by a database reader plug-in that is distributed with VisIt. If you want to use VisIt with your data, you can write your data to a file format that VisIt already understands or you can write your own database reader plug-in. You can find out more about writing compatible files and writing a database reader plug-in in the Getting Data Into VisIt manual.
| File Format | Description | URL |
|---|---|---|
| ANALYZE | Format that stores fMRI data of brain scans. | ANALYZE file format description |
| ANSYS | ASCII file format used for input to the ANSYS suite. | ANSYS home page |
| BOV (brick of values) | BOV data are stored in two files. The first file is binary and it contains all of the data for an implied rectilinear grid stored as a brick of floats, doubles, etc. The second file is an ASCII header file that indicates the size of the data in the brick file as well as other attributes such as whether the brick is compressed. The contents of the ASCII header are described in the Getting Data Into VisIt manual. | |
| Boxlib | File format used by the Boxlib library, an adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) framework. VisIt reads both 2D and 3D versions of the data file format. | View Boxlib documentation |
| CGNS | The CFD General Notation System (CGNS) consists of a collection of conventions, and software implementing those conventions, for the storage and retrieval of CFD (computational fluid dynamics) data. | |
| Chombo | This database reader plugin reads files from the Chombo package, which provides a set of tools for implementing finite difference methods for the solution of partial differential equations on block-structured adaptively refined rectangular grids. | Chombo home page |
| CTRL | CTRL files are the control files for TB-LMTO software, which uses the linear muffin-tin orbital (LMTO) method. | STUTTGART TB-LMTO program |
| Curve2D | ASCII text file format containing pairs of x,y floating point values on each line. This file format is convenient for importing curve plots into VisIt. The curve format can store more than one curve provided you supply a variable name as a comment, beginning with "#". | |
| Ensight Gold | Proprietary file format for 2D and 3D data. | File format described in chapter 2 of the Ensight User Manual |
| Enzo | Enzo is an adaptive mesh refinement (AMR), grid-based hybrid code (hydro + N-Body) which is designed to do simulations of cosmological structure formation. | Enzo home page |
| Exodus | Sandia National Laboratory's file format for storing data | Exodus II documentation |
| FITS | FITS stands for `Flexible Image Transport System' and is the standard astronomical data format endorsed by both NASA and the IAU. FITS is much more than an image format (such as JPG or GIF) and is primarily designed to store scientific data sets consisting of multi-dimensional arrays (1-D spectra, 2-D images or 3-D data cubes) and 2-dimensional tables containing rows and columns of data. | FITS home page |
| FLASH | ASC / Alliances Center for Astrophysical Thermonuclear Flashes | FLASH home page |
| FLUENT | FLUENT is a very popular commercial CFD code. | FLUENT home page |
| FVCOM | An unstructured grid, finite-volume, three-dimensional (3D) primitive equations ocean model that has been developed for the study of coastal oceanic and estuarine circulation. | FVCOM home page |
| GGCM | The centerpiece of the NSF/GEM, program is the development of a Geospace General Circulation Model (GGCM), to be used as a research tool as well as a prototype for space weather forecasting models. | Open Geospace General Circulation Model |
| GIS | VisIt can read in several popular Geographic Information System (GIS) file formats using the GDAL library. The content stored in GIS file formats varies widely but can include elevation maps, census data, vector data such as roads and streams, etc. Some of the supported file formats are DEM, ArcGrid, ESRI Shapefile. | |
| H5Nimrod | The H5Nimrod plugin was developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to read Nimrod's HDF5 output file format. | H5Nimrod plugin information |
| H5Part | The H5Part plugin was developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to read HDF5 part files. | H5Part plugin information |
| Image | VisIt can read in many image file formats created by popular image editing software including: BMP, JPEG, PNG, PPM, PNM, RGB, TIFF. Stacks of images can also be assembled into 3D volumes using a .imgvol file, which is a text file containing the names of the files to assemble into the 3D volume. | |
| ITAPS | VisIt's ITAPS reader is one implementation of the TSTT interface for representing mesh and geometric data. The interface is experimental and is being actively developed and refined by a follow-on SciDAC project called ITAPS (Interoperable Technologies for Advanced Petascale Simulations). The interface is designed to be used 'in-situ' and so there is no well defined, persistent file format. VisIt's ITAPS reader is currently designed around the MOAB implementation of the TSTT interface. Presently, it reads unstructured, single-block meshes consisting of any combination of the finite element zoo of element types along with zone- and node-centered fields implemented as TSTT 'tags'. | ITAPS |
| MFIX | MFIX (Multiphase Flow with Interphase eXchanges) is a general-purpose computer code developed at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) for describing the hydrodynamics, heat transfer and chemical reactions in fluid-solids systems. | MFIX home page |
| MM5 | MM5 is a limited-area, nonhydrostatic, terrain-following sigma-coordinate model designed to simulate or predict mesoscale atmospheric circulation. | MM5 Community Model home page |
| NASTRAN | NASTRAN Bulk data file format is an ASCII format that describes unstructured meshes. | NASTRAN home page |
| Nek5000 | Nek5000 is a file format developed for the Nek 5000 code at Argonne National Laboratory. | Nek5000 home page |
| NetCDF |
NetCDF (network Common Data Form) is an interface for array-oriented data access and a library that provides an implementation of the interface. The netCDF library also defines a machine-independent format for representing scientific data. Together, the interface, library, and format support the creation, access, and sharing of scientific data. VisIt's NetCDF reader plugin supports conventions for the ADAPT, Lodi, and FVCOM simulation codes. If your NetCDF files were not generated with those codes then VisIt's basic NetCDF reader will attempt to expose all 1D, 2D, 3D arrays as variables that VisIt can plot. The basic reader does not permit you to specify coordinates for your mesh nor does it allow more than one time step in a file. If your file's variables are disabled in VisIt's plot menus then you may need to extend VisIt's NetCDF reader to support your code's conventions. |
|
| OpenFOAM | The OpenFOAM (Open Field Operation and Manipulation) CFD Toolbox can simulate anything from complex fluid flows involving chemical reactions, turbulence and heat transfer, to solid dynamics, electromagnetics and the pricing of financial options. OpenFOAM is freely available and open source, licensed under the GNU General Public License. | OpenFOAM home page |
| PATRAN | PATRAN neutral file, which is an ASCII file containing the definition for an unstructured mesh. | PATRAN home page |
| PLOT3D | Visualization application with accompanying file format developed at NASA Ames. | Download PLOT3D |
| Point3D |
Point3D is a simple ASCII text format for 3D particles that have 1 scalar variable. Point3D is not a widely used format but it can be useful for scripts or simple particle simulations that want an easy way to get particle data into VisIt. The file format consists of a comment line that includes the names of the coordinates and the variable name. The variable name is used in VisIt's plot menus. After the comment line, each subsequent line contains the (x,y,z) coordinates and variable value for a point. If you have more than 1 scalar variable to plot on your particles then consider using Silo or Xmdv file formats. Example file: |
|
| Protein Databank | Protein Databank (PDB) files contain molecular data describing the structures of biological macromolecules. | RCSB Protein Databank |
| SAMRAI | Format used by SAMRAI, which is a high-performance library for handling structured AMR data. | SAMRAI home page |
| Silo | LLNL data file format for storing rectilinear, curvilinear, unstructured, or point meshes in 2D and 3D. Scalar, vector, and material data can be defined on meshes. Data can be broken up into different files (multi-block) to increase parallel performance. | Silo Home Page |
| Spheral | Spheral++ is a steerable parallel environment for performing coupled hydrodynamical and gravitational numerical simulations. | Spheral++ home page |
| STL | STL, or stereo lithography format, is an ASCII or binary file used in manufacturing. It is a list of the triangular surfaces that describe a computer generated solid model. This is the standard input for most rapid prototyping machines. | STL file format description |
| TecPlot | TecPlot is another popular visualization tool. VisIt can read the ASCII version of the TecPlot file format, though VisIt's reader does not handle all forms of the ASCII Tecplot file format. | TecPlot home page |
| VASP | VAMP/VASP is a package for performing ab-initio quantum-mechanical molecular dynamics (MD) using pseudopotentials and a plane wave basis set. | VASP Group |
| Vis5D | Vis5d is a free OpenGL-based volumetric visualization program for scientific datasets in 3+ dimensions. | Vis5D+ home page |
| VTK | Visualization Toolkit (VTK) data file format. This is an ASCII-based file format that can store 2D and 3D meshes and data on those meshes. | Download file format manual |
| Wavefront OBJ | Alias Wavefront's OBJ file format is useful for incorporating 3D models into your visualizations. | Wavefront OBJ file format description |
| Xmdv | File format used by XmdvTool, a public-domain software package for the interactive visual exploration of multivariate data sets. | Xmdv file format description |
| XDMF | A standardized method to exchange scientific data between High Performance Computing codes and tools. It uses XML to store light data and HDF5 to store heavy data. | XDMF home page |
| ZeusMP (HDF4) | This database reader plugin reads HDF4 files from ZEUS-MP, which is a parallel addition to the ZEUS line of community application codes developed by the Laboratory for Computational Astrophysics. |
VisIt can read in a variety of data file formats due to its database reader plug-ins. If you want VisIt to read your data there are three approaches that you can take. These approaches are all described in the Getting Data Into VisIt manual. First, you could convert your data files into a format that VisIt understands. If you do not want to double your stored data or if you have not yet created your data, you could change your application to write out data in a format that VisIt understands. Finally, you could write your own database reader plug-in for VisIt so that VisIt can read data from your file format. The approach that you take depends on your situation, the type of data, and what language was used to write your application. If you want to use a versatile file format that VisIt already understands and you are programming in C, C++, or Fortran, then we recommend using Silo. You could also use CGNS or NetCDF, depending on how your data is represented. If your application is not written in any of those languages, we recommend writing out VTK files since they are simple enough to write without lots of complicated programming. If you don't want to convert data files or alter your code to write out a format that VisIt already reads, then you might consider writing your own database reader plug-in for VisIt. For more information on how to write your own database reader plug-in, read the Getting Data Into VisIt manual.
VisIt is released under the BSD license, which you can view on VisIt's license page.
HDF5 is an array storage file format that supports a wide variety of data types and VisIt reads a lot of file formats from codes that use HDF5 as a storage layer. Unfortunately, VisIt cannot provide a plugin that can read all HDF5-based files because of the various conventions that codes invent when they store their files. VisIt's HDF5-enabled plugins are programmed to know about the conventions used to map array data from the file into meaningful constructs such as meshes with data. If you need to import HDF5 data into VisIt then you might be achieve satisfactory results if you choose File->Open As... and then open the file using the Pixie reader, which is VisIt's most generic HDF5 reader. Note that it is possible to write a new database reader plugin to understand your data following the procedures provided in the Getting Data Into VisIt manual.
Like HDF5, NETCDF is just an array storage file format so the same problems tend to occur when you want to get NETCDF data into VisIt. However, VisIt's NETCDF reader will attempt to open NETCDF data with a variety of different readers that look for various simulation code conventions (CF support not implemented) and in the event that the file was not written using any discernable convention then a back up basic reader is used. The basic NETCDF reader exposes all of the arrays in the NETCDF file as data that can be plotted on rectilinear meshes corresponding to the size of each array. The common complaint is that the data looks okay but the mesh is not scaled accordingly. If this happens to you then VisIt is using its basic NETCDF reader, which does not support any conventions. Note that it is possible to write a new database reader plugin to understand your data following the procedures provided in the Getting Data Into VisIt manual.
If you use VisIt to generate images and/or movies please cite VisIt in your paper and the credits of your movie. Doing so helps us sustain funding for future improvements and on going maintenance. Please use the following acknowledgement and send us references to any publications, presentations, or successful funding applications that make use of DOE software.
- VisIt Citation [bibtex citation]
VisIt is supported by the Department of Energy with funding from the Advanced Simulation and Computing Program and the Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing Program.
