ParaView

ParaView is an open-source, multi-platform data analysis and visualization application. ParaView users can quickly build visualizations to analyze their data using qualitative and quantitative techniques. The data exploration can be done interactively in 3D or programmatically using ParaView's batch processing capabilities.

ParaView was developed to analyze extremely large datasets using distributed memory computing resources. It can be run on supercomputers to analyze datasets of terascale as well as on laptops for smaller data.

Running and Testing on the cluster

Load the environmental variables and path by typing:

module load paraview

Request a compute node with x-forwarding. We recommend you to access via NX client described at HPC GUI Visual Access

srun --x11 --pty bash

Then to run the software type:

paraview

You will see the ParaView splash screen.

Tutorials

Vertex Cover

For reproducing the work at GitHub:

Get a output file in VTK Unstructured (vtu) format as described in README at GitHub.
In the ParaView GUI, open that vtu file, "vertex.vtu"
Click Apply
Line Width = 5
Toggle Color Legend Visibility
Select Glyph filter (click on Glyph icon); change arrow to sphare; radius=1
Click Appy
Go to View->Section Inspector
current object field select: vertex.vtu
click on "Create Selection"
Select Object: vertex.vtu
Selection Type: IDs
Field Type: POINT
Click on the new value and edit to get the idices - 0,1,2,3,4,5,6
In the Display Style make sure to choose Point Label
Check the visible
Change the Font color accordingly (Black)

Spreadsheet View:

Click on "Split horizontal" icon on the display window
In the create choose window, choose the selection "Spread Sheet View"
Select all and it will be reflected on Selection inspector; no need to manually include the indices

Red Blood Cell

Follow the Red Blood Cell Tutorial from Argonne facility [1]. You can also copy the data files from /usr/local/doc/PARAVIEW/BLOODFLOW_TUTORIAL_DATA

cp -r /usr/local/doc/PARAVIEW/BLOODFLOW_TUTORIAL_DATA .

Click on the “Source” Menu and select “Sphere” and then Click on the “Accept” button at the Properties tab on the bottom left pane. You will see the sphere on the right window. You may change the resolution by changing the values of both Theta and Phi Resolution.

References:

[1] Paraview Red blood cell tutorial: https://www.alcf.anl.gov/user-guides/vis-paraview-red-blood-cell-tutorial

Website: ParaView

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ParaView

Guide: http://paraview.org/OnlineHelpCurrent/

Tutorial: https://visualization.hpc.mil/wiki/index.php/ParaView