[General] A "clean" solution to export binary ensight gold format from Fortran to Paraview?

flotus1 · May 8, 2015, 03:46

After a lot of trial and error and web searches, I finally managed to export data from a Fortran code in ensight gold format to Paraview.

However, I am not 100% satisfied with the solution and feel like I am missing something.
I ended up opening the geometry and value files with the form='binary' parameter. Additionally, I had to use "C Binary" instead of the obvious "Fortran Binary" in the geometry file header.
The thing is that form='binary' is not a Fortran standard and thus unsupported e.g. by gfortran.
Is there really no straightforward, compiler independent solution to do this?

Related question: ensight expects 4-Byte float values. Is it even possible to export 8-Byte floats with this file format?

This post might aswell fit into the ensight section. However, the ens_checker stated that everything was fine with my file format when using form='unformatted' and "Fortran Binary" in the geometry header.
Paraview on the other hand crashed throwing a segmentation fault while loading the case.

Edit:
Sometimes a fresh start after a sufficient amount of sleep helps...
Apparently, using form='unformatted' and access='stream' does the trick. Now I can even use "Fortran Binary" in the header of the geometry file and compile the code with gfortran.

flotus1 · June 23, 2015, 11:59

While this solves the issue for loading the case file in ParaView, the ens_checker on the other hand tries to handle the geometry as an ASCII file format and fails.
It just seems like the definitions for the binary ensight file format are different for Fortran and ParaView. Or at least non-standard Fortran (which is not supported by all compilers) is required to get the job done.

May 8, 2015, 03:46	A "clean" solution to export binary ensight gold format from Fortran to Paraview?	#1
flotus1 Super Moderator Alex Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 3,399 Rep Power: 46	After a lot of trial and error and web searches, I finally managed to export data from a Fortran code in ensight gold format to Paraview. However, I am not 100% satisfied with the solution and feel like I am missing something. I ended up opening the geometry and value files with the form='binary' parameter. Additionally, I had to use "C Binary" instead of the obvious "Fortran Binary" in the geometry file header. The thing is that form='binary' is not a Fortran standard and thus unsupported e.g. by gfortran. Is there really no straightforward, compiler independent solution to do this? Related question: ensight expects 4-Byte float values. Is it even possible to export 8-Byte floats with this file format? This post might aswell fit into the ensight section. However, the ens_checker stated that everything was fine with my file format when using form='unformatted' and "Fortran Binary" in the geometry header. Paraview on the other hand crashed throwing a segmentation fault while loading the case. Edit: Sometimes a fresh start after a sufficient amount of sleep helps... Apparently, using form='unformatted' and access='stream' does the trick. Now I can even use "Fortran Binary" in the header of the geometry file and compile the code with gfortran.

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June 23, 2015, 11:59		#2
flotus1 Super Moderator Alex Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 3,399 Rep Power: 46	While this solves the issue for loading the case file in ParaView, the ens_checker on the other hand tries to handle the geometry as an ASCII file format and fails. It just seems like the definitions for the binary ensight file format are different for Fortran and ParaView. Or at least non-standard Fortran (which is not supported by all compilers) is required to get the job done.