Running MeshConv

This page is a quick-reference guide to running MeshConv, the mesh format converter. See the MeshConv page for more details about MeshConv itself.

MeshConv can be run using the executable in <build-dir>/Main/meshconv. For example,

meshconv -i inp.msh -o out.exo

will read data from 'inp.msh' in Gmsh format, and output it to 'out.exo' in ExodusII format. Help can be accessed by passing the --help argument to meshconv. The full list can also be found here.

Surface outputs

Surface outputs from a parallel simulation need to be stitched before visualization. MeshConv is used for stitching such surface output files. For example, if the surface output is from a parallel simulation (say using 30 partitions/chares), stitch the surface outputs (say for sideset 2) using MeshConv as follows:

meshconv -i out-surf.2.e-s.0.30.% -o out-surf2.exo -v

This takes a single sideset saved by multiple chares and combines them to a single file which can be loaded into ParaView.

Surface outputs for moving overset meshes

Quinoa outputs a different field output (surface and volume) every time the mesh changes. For a moving overset mesh, this complicates the stitching process. Assume three time-stamps- 0, 13, 38 for the sideset 101, from a 22-core simulation. The steps to stitch the surface output for sideset 101 are as follows.

Stitch each time-stamp output together using:

  <build-dir>/Main/meshconv -i out-surf.101.1.e-s.<TS>.22.% -o sideset101.<TS>.exo

where <TS> should be replaced by 0, 13, and 38 for each time-stamp. This will result in 3 files: sideset101.<TS>.exo, for <TS>=0,13,38. Next, rename these sideset101.<TS>.exo's using:

  mv sideset101.<TS>.exo sideset101.e-s.<TS>

where again <TS> should be replaced by the specific time-stamp. Load sideset101.e-s.0 into ParaView. This will load the surface output time series correctly.