For VTU files that are missing object surface information

General
1

Hello, everyone!

Using PyFR is highly efficient, and I truly enjoy working with it.

However, there’s a persistent concern I have: its output file format, VTU, isn’t quite user-friendly for my needs. Specifically, while it retains data like velocity, density, and pressure, crucial information about the object’s surface seems to be missing.

If I’m dealing with a complex surface, say a 3D airfoil, post-processing can become a hassle. Frankly, I’m at a loss on how to proceed.

For instance, I’m trying to extract pressure distribution from the VTU file of a 3D airfoil or perhaps span-averaged physical quantities. Even with the latest versions of Tecplot and ParaView at my disposal, I’m unsure of where to start. Do you have any suggestions for me?

Based on my experience, other software typically retains this essential surface data and often outputs in formats other than VTU.

Best regards.

2

ParaView has a filter which can extract boundaries.

Regards, Freddie.

3

To follow up on Freddie’s answer, in Paraview you can do Clean to Grid followed by an Extract Surface filter to get out the domain surfaces (and Generate Surface Normals if you need to compute normal/tangent quantities). A clip operation can then generally get what surface you need. However, if your surface isn’t easily separable to where Clip isn’t feasible (such as if you want to only look at particular surfaces of your geometry), I’m not sure if that’s doable with the current output format.

4

Thanks, I’m not very familiar with Paraview yet, but I will make an effort to learn it soon.
Regards.