Lab visualization tutorial

This is a guide to using ParaView on a lab computer to create plots. It is just the basics in how to get started. See other resources (Paraview tutorial) for more in depth tutorials.

This tutorial will open a Kelvin-Helmholtz billow in a publicly available directory.

Open ParaView

Run in parallel on Onyx

1. Run mpiexec -np N "C:\Program Files\ParaView 5.5.0-RC3-Qt5-MPI-Windows-64bit\bin\pvserver" in Command Prompt. Change N to a number less than or equal to 12.
2. Open the ParaView app.
3. Click the button with two computers connected by a green dot (in top left of the toolbar).
4. Select the Onyx server and click Connect.
   If none present, create it:
   • Click Add Server
   • Give it the name Onyx
   • Click Configure
   • Click Save

Run in serial on Onyx

1. Open the ParaView app.
   That's it. There is nothing more. However, ParaView will likely be slow for large data sets.

Open data files

1. Click the Open button (Folder with a white paper in it in top left of the toolbar).
2. Click output_..nc in C:\Users\ddeepwel\Documents\Graham data\kh_billow
3. Select NetCDF files generic and CF conventions.
4. Unselect the checkbox for Spherical Coordinates (it's in the Properties tab).
5. Click Apply (it's in the Properties tab).

If your data is mapped then you must follow the steps here to adjust your grid from the rectilinear grid to the correct curvilinear one.

Plot something

We will plot contours of the y-component of vorticity (vorty).

1. Click the Contour button (it's beside the calculator button in the top left of the toolbar).
2. Select vorty in the "Contour By" drop-down menu.
3. Unselect Compute Normals.
4. Select Compute Scalars.
5. Unselect Generate Triangles.
6. Chose contours -1 and 1 as two different isosurfaces.
7. Click Apply.
8. Select vorty in the drop-down menu of variables (it might currently be showing "Solid Color").

Move the data

The following are useful commands to move the camera viewing the data:

• Hold right click and slide the mouse will adjust the zoom
• Hold left click and slide the mouse will rotate the plot.
• Hold x, y, or z and left/right click and slide the mouse will rotate about the x, y, or z axes.
• Hold the scroll wheel down and slide the mouse will pan across the plot (shift+control+ mouse movement will do the same).