Partial list of file formats and their details VisIt supports

The most up to date list of supported formats is found in the VisIt source code.

You might also be interested in the Short list of file formats VisIt supports.

Details of some of the commonly used file formats

Application Code Formats These are formats that were originally designed primarily for and are part of some specific application code. That is, the code that writes these files is typically part of the application itself and is not a stand-alone product of its own. Nonetheless, these formats may use some lower level library such as HDF5, or they may use raw ASCII. Codes which use standard, common file formats are not listed in this section; look in your code's documentation to determine the type of files it generates.
Plug-in Name	Format Name	Typical File Names	Description	Links
ANSYS	ANSYS input	*.inp	ANSYS is a computer-aided engineering suite of tools.	ANSYS home page
AUXFile	AUX files	*.aux	Diagnostic data for the National Ignition Facility (NIF).	NIF home page
Cale	CALE output	*.pdb *.cale	CALE is a hydrodynamics code.
CaleHDF5	CALE HDF5 output	*.ch5 *.cale	CALE is a hydrodynamics code.
CCM	STAR-CD output	*.ccm	The CCM plugin reads data from the STAR-CD CFD code.	STAR-CD home page
Cosmos	Cosmos output	*.cosmos	Cosmos++ is a "massively parallel, multi-dimensional, fully covariant, modern object-oriented (C++) magnetohydrodynamics code written to support structured and unstructured adaptively refined meshes, and for both Newtonian and general relativistic astrophysical applications."	http://fragilep.people.cofc.edu/research/
CosmosPP		*.cosmospp *.cosmos++
CTRL	TB-LMTO control file	*.ctrl	CTRL files are the control files for TB-LMTO software, which uses the linear muffin-tin orbital (LMTO) method. This reader supports the STRUC, CLASS, SITE, ALAT, and PLAT file categories.	STUTTGART TB-LMTO program
DDCMD	DDCMD	*.ddcmd	ddcMD is a parallel domain-decomposition molecular dynamics code from LLNL.
Dune	deprecated
Dyna3D	Dyna3D output files	*.dyn	Dyna3D is a finite element engineering code from LLNL.	Dyna3D home page
Enzo	Enzo HDF4, HDF5, and HDF5 packed-AMR output	*.boundary *.hierarchy	Output from the scientific simulation code Enzo. Enzo is "an adaptive mesh refinement (AMR), grid-based hybrid code (hydro + N-Body) which is designed to do simulations of cosmological structure formation."	Enzo home page Enzo portal
FLASH	FLASH HDF5 output		FLASH is the code from the ASC / Alliances Center for Astrophysical Thermonuclear Flashes.	FLASH home page
Fluent	Fluent case/data files	*.cas	FLUENT is a popular commercial CFD code, now owned by ANSYS.	FLUENT home page
Gadget	Gadget files	*.gadget	GADGET is a parallel cosmological N-body/SPH simulation code.	http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/gadget/
GGCM	GGCM 3df files	*.3df	The centerpiece of the NSF/GEM program is the development of a Geospace General Circulation Model (GGCM), to be used as a research tool as well as a prototype for space weather forecasting models.	Open Geospace General Circulation Model
GTC	GTC HDF5 output		"The gyrokinetic toroidal code (GTC) is a massively parallel, particle-in-cell code for simulations of turbulence and transport in fusion plasmas such as ITER."	GTC home page
GULP	GULP trajectory output	*.trg	"GULP is a program for performing a variety of types of simulation on materials using boundary conditions of 0-D (molecules and clusters), 1-D (polymers), 2-D (surfaces, slabs and grain boundaries), or 3-D (periodic solids)." This format contains atom positions and velocities.	GULP home page
H5Nimrod	NIMROD HDF5 output	.h5nimrod	The H5Nimrod plugin was developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to read NIMROD's HDF5 output file format.	H5Nimrod information
KullLite	KULL lite format	*.pdb *.mkf	KULL is "LLNL's ASCI inertial confinement fusion simulation code"	https://e-reports-ext.llnl.gov/pdf/237860.pdf
LAMMPS	LAMMPS Atom-style dump	*.dump	LAMMPS is the "Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator". This reader supports both the output dump in "Atom" style and the format used by the read_data input script command.	LAMMPS dump documentation LAMMPS home page
	LAMMPS read_data input	*.eam *.meam *.rigid
M3D	M3D files	*.m3d	M3D is a parallel multilevel 3D plasma simulation code.	http://w3.pppl.gov/m3d/index.php
Mili	Mili files	*.mili *.m	Mili is an engineering code from LLNL. Note that you might have to run a file preparation utility before reading these files.	https://www-eng.llnl.gov/mdg/mdg_home.html
Miranda	Miranda files	*.mir *.raw	Miranda is a research hydrodynamics code from LLNL.
MFIX	MFIX restart file	*.res	"MFIX (Multiphase Flow with Interphase eXchanges) is a general-purpose computer code developed at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) for describing the hydrodynamics, heat transfer and chemical reactions in fluid-solids systems."	MFIX home page
MM5	MM5	*.mm5	MM5 is a limited-area, nonhydrostatic, terrain-following sigma-coordinate model designed to simulate or predict mesoscale atmospheric circulation.	MM5 Community Model
NASTRAN	NASTRAN ASCII bulk data format	*.nas *.f06	"MSC Nastran is a powerful general purpose finite element analysis solution for small to complex assemblies."	Nastran home page
Nek3D	deprecated
Nek5000	NEK5000 field files	*.nek3d *.nek2d *.nek5k *.nek5000 *.nek	NEK5000 is a spectral element CFD solver developed at Argonne National Laboratory. Note that this reader requires a meta-data file that you open in VisIt, and which points to the field files.	NEK5000 home page
OVERFLOW	OVERFLOW output files	*.dat *.save	OVERFLOW is an overset flow solver for structured grids from NASA.	Wikipedia OVERFLOW entry OVERFLOW code page
paraDIS	ParaDiS	*.dat *.data *.prds	ParaDiS restart file.	ParaDiS Home Page
PATRAN	PATRAN Neutral	*.neu	PATRAN neutral file, which is an ASCII file containing the definition for an unstructured mesh.	PATRAN Home Page
PFLOTRAN	PFLOTRAN HDF5 output	pflotran.h5	PFLOTRAN is massively parallel groundwater simulation code.	PFLOTRAN home page
Pixie	Pixie HDF5 output	*.h5	Pixie is a single-block, rectilinear mesh file using HDF5. Pixie files are generated by software at Los Alamos (may be related to Polar Ionospheric X-Ray Imaging Experiment (PIXIE)). VisIt's Pixie reader was written with a high degree of generality in mind. It makes few assumptions regarding the names and/or locations of HDF5 objects in the file and can often be used successfully to read arbitrary, HDF5 arrays of data.
PuReMD	PuReMD trajectory file	*.trj	This is the output from the PuReMD (Purdue Reactive Molecular Dynamics) program, containing atom positions, velocities, and/or forces, over multiple time steps.	PuReMD User Manual
S3D	S3D NetCDF output		S3D is a combustion simulation from Sandia National Laboratories.
SAS	SAS output	*.sasgeom *.sasdata *.sas	SAS is a nuclear reactor modeling code from Argonne National Laboratory.	Nuclear engineering codes at ANL
SPCTH	CTH output	*.spcth	SPCTH is the format written out during CTH simulation runs for the purpose of doing visualization at runtime.	CTH Release Information
Tetrad	TETRAD HDF5 file	*.h5 *.hdf5	TETRAD is a reservoir simulation from Idaho National Lab (formerly INEEL).
UNIC	UNIC HDF5 output	*.h5	UNIC is a neutronics code from Argonne as part of the Simulation-based High-efficiency Advanced Reactor Prototyping (SHARP) Framework.	http://trac.mcs.anl.gov/projects/neams-ibm/wiki/sharp
VASP	VASP charge density grid	CHGCAR*	VAMP/VASP is the Vienna Ab-initio Simulation Package for performing quantum-mechanical molecular dynamics. VASP outputs a variety of different files; this reader supports several of them.	VASP home page
	VASP output ion positions, velocities, forces	OUTCAR*
	VASP ion positions and velocities	POSCAR*
ZeusMP	Zeus-MP	*.zeus	This database reader plugin reads HDF4 files from ZEUS-MP, which is a parallel addition to the ZEUS line of community application codes developed by the Laboratory for Computational Astrophysics.	Zeus-MP home page
Application Toolkit Formats These are similar to application code formats except that instead of being part of one specific application code, they are instead part of a broader framework or toolkit for writing application codes. Again, the code that writes files in these formats is not a stand-alone product on its own. Instead, it is part of the associated toolkit.
Plug-in Name	Format Name	Typical File Names	Description	Links
AdvIO	Adventure file format	*.adv *.inp *.msh	Adventure is an advanced general-purpose computational mechanics system for large-scale analysis and design.	ADVENTURE Project
Boxlib2D	Boxlib data file	Header *.boxlib2d	The Boxlib library is an adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) framework developed at CCSE. This plugin reads the 2D and 3D versions of the file.	CCSE home page at LBL
Boxlib3D		Header *.boxlib3d
CEAucd	CEA data	*.inp	Unstructured data from CEA.	http://www.cea.fr/
Chombo	Chombo HDF5 file	*.h5 *.hdf5	The Chombo package provides a set of tools for implementing finite difference methods for the solution of partial differential equations on block-structured adaptively refined rectangular grids.	Chombo home page
Claw	CLAWPACK files		CLAWPACK is the Conservation Law Package, an AMR code from University of Washington.	http://www.amath.washington.edu/~claw/
ITAPS_C	ITAPS_GRUMMP	*.bdry, *.smesh, *.vmesh	The GRUMMP implementation of ITAPS	ITAPS Home page ITAPS is not so much a file format as it is an interface specification for data exchange. There are several impelementations of this interface including MOAB, FMDB, and GRUMMP. Each implementation writes ITAPS data to its own, unique file format. Furthermore there is no requirement that the native files written by one implementation be readable by another.
	ITAPS_MOAB	*.h5m, *.mhdf	The MOAB implementation of ITAPS. Note that depending on how the MOAB library was configured prior to linking to VisIt, the ITAPS_MOAB plugin may also be capable of reading a number of other file formats include ExodusII, VTK, STL, Cubit, GMV. SLAC, IDEAS and TetGen .
	ITAPS_FMDB	*.sms	The FMDB implementation of ITAPS
OpenFOAM	OpenFOAM	controlDict	The OpenFOAM (Open Field Operation and Manipulation) CFD Toolbox can simulate anything from complex fluid flows involving chemical reactions, turbulence and heat transfer, to solid dynamics, electromagnetics and the pricing of financial options. OpenFOAM is freely available and open source, licensed under the GNU General Public License.	OpenFOAM Home Page
SAMRAI	SAMRAI HDF5 files	*.samrai	SAMRAI is the Structured Adaptive Mesh Refinement Application Infrastructure library from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.	SAMRAI home page
Spheral	Spheral++ output	*.sv *.spheral	Spheral++ is a steerable parallel environment for performing coupled hydrodynamical and gravitational numerical simulations.	Spheral++ SourceForge page
Vista	deprecated
General Scientific Data Formats These formats are specifically designed to be scientific interchange formats for a variety of applications, storing data for one or more computational science domains. These formats are not specific to any application code or toolkit and typically have standalone I/O libraries.
Plug-in Name	Format Name	Typical File Names	Description	Links
ADIOS	ADIOS file format	*.bp	ADIOS (Adaptable IO System) is a simple, flexible library for the description of data in scientific codes.	ADIOS home page
CGNS	CGNS		The CFD General Notation System (CGNS) consists of a collection of conventions, and software implementing those conventions, for the storage and retrieval of CFD (computational fluid dynamics) data.	CGNS home page CGNS User's Guide For time dependent data, be sure to read this specification
Exodus	Exodus NetCDF file	*.ex *.e *.exo *.ex2 *.exii *.gen *.exodus *.nemesis	Exodus is a format from Sandia National Laboratories for storing scientific data.	ExodusII documentation
H5Part	H5Part HDF5 files	*.h5part	H5Part is a high-performance parallel data interface to HDF5, largely targeted at particle-based simulations. The H5Part plugin was developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.	H5Part plugin info H5Part home page
HDF_UC	FastBit HDF5 file	*.h5 *.h5part	FastBit, "An Efficient Compressed Bitmap Index Technology", is from LBL's Scientific Data Management Research Group.	FastBit home page
NETCDF	ADAPT output files	*.nc *.cdf *.elev *.ncd	ADAPT is an meteorological modeling code from NARAC/LLNL.	NetCDF Home Page Also see Reading NETCDF in VisIt
	CCSM files		CCSM is the Community Climate System Model code initially from NCAR.
	FVCOM files		FVCOM is an unstructured climate code from UMASSD-WHOI.
	LODI		LODI is an atmosphere dispersion code from NARAC/LLNL.
	BasicNETCDF		For NetCDF files not from one of the above codes, this sub-format does its best to extract 1D, 2D, and 3D arrays with Cartesian grids. It will not understand unstructured grids or other data storage conventions.
PDB	PACT/PDB	*.pdb *.r0000	PACT is the Portable Application Code Toolkit from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, and PDB is its Portable Data Base I/O layer. Several variants with conventions for a few specific application codes using PDB are also supported through this reader.	PACT home page
	LEOS output
	PF3D output
	ZFile
Silo	Silo PDB and HDF5 files	*.silo	Silo is an LLNL data file format for storing rectilinear, curvilinear, unstructured, or point meshes in 2D and 3D. Scalar, vector, and material data can be defined on meshes. Data can be broken up into different files (multi-block) to increase parallel performance.	Silo home page
TimeVaryingExodus	time-varying Exodus file	*.exII	This is a format specialized for reading time-varying Exodus files.	(see Exodus above)
XDMF	XDMF XML and HDF5 data	*.xmf *.xdmf	XDMF is standardized method to exchange scientific data between High Performance Computing codes and tools. It uses XML to store light data and HDF5 to store heavy data.	XDMF home page
Specialized Scientific Data Formats These are scientific data formats that are designed for one limited type of data, often specific to a single scientific domain such as geographic or molecular data. They often have standalone I/O libraries if they are not ASCII-based.
Plug-in Name	Format Name	Typical File Names	Description	Links
BOW	BOW files	*.txt	BOW files are compressed brick-of-wavelet files from LibGen, a suite of libraries developed at LLNL.	LibGen home page
FITS	FITS	*.fit *.fits *.imh	FITS stands for `Flexible Image Transport System' and is the standard astronomical data format endorsed by both NASA and the IAU. FITS is much more than an image format (such as JPG or GIF) and is primarily designed to store scientific data sets consisting of multi-dimensional arrays (1-D spectra, 2-D images or 3-D data cubes) and 2-dimensional tables containing rows and columns of data.	FITS Home Page
FT2	FT2 files	*.FT2	FT2 files are generated from Thermo Scientific raw mass spectrometry files by raxport	raxport home page
GDAL	GDAL files	*.adf *.asc *.bt *.ddf *.dem *.ecw *.gxf *.jp2 *.map *.mem *.mpl *.mpr *.n1 *.nat *.ntf *.pix *.rsw *.sid *.vrt *.xpm	GDAL is the Geospatial Data Abstraction Library.	http://www.gdal.org/
MatrixMarket	MatrixMarket dense and sparse	*.mtx	MatrixMarket is a format for storing matrices in a variety of formats and data types. This reader supports the dense (array) and sparse (coordinate), real-valued forms.	MatrixMarket home page
ProteinDataBank	PDB files	*.pdb	Protein Databank (PDB) files contain molecular data describing the structures of biological macromolecules.	RCSB Protein Data Bank
SAMI		*.sami	SAMI is a particular type of Silo file output by mesh generators such as TrueGrid and Pmesh for representing an unstructured mesh of hexahedra. It uses Silo's low-level array objects to output 3 floating point coordinate arrays and 8 integer connectivity arrays as well as some optional integer material information.	TrueGrid Silo home page
SAR	SAR file	*.sar	This is a 3D regular grid format for Specific Absorption Rate from ARL.
Shapefile	ESRI shapefile	*.shp *.dhx *.dbf	Shapefile is a vector data format for geographic information systems.	Shapefile description
ViSUS	ViSUS files	*.idx *.vis	ViSUS is a streaming format for large scientific data.	ViSUS home page
VLI	VLI connection	*.vli	Socket connection based reader, connecting to University of Tennessee's VLI multivariate data server.
XYZ	XYZ file	*.xyz	The .xyz file format is a simple ASCII format used for describing atom positions, species, possibly variables, and possibly with multiple time steps.	XYZ format information Wikipedia XYZ entry
Visualization Formats These formats are geared towards storing data for visualization tools.
Plug-in Name	Format Name	Typical File Names	Description	Links
ANALYZE	Analyze 7.5 Image	*.img + *.hdr	Analyze is a tool for 3D biomedical image visualization developed at the Mayo Clinic. This reader supports the .img/.hdr file pair format of Analyze 7.5.	Analyze home page Analyze format description
BOV	Brick Of Values	*.bov	BOV data are stored in two files. The first file is binary and it contains all of the data for an implied rectilinear grid stored as a brick of floats, doubles, etc. The second file is an ASCII header file that indicates the size of the data in the brick file as well as other attributes such as whether the brick is compressed.	Getting Data Into VisIt Manual
EnSight	EnSight Gold	*.case	Proprietary file format for 2D and 3D data.	EnSight manuals (see ch. 2)
GMV	General Mesh Viewer	*.gmv	File format for the gmv visualization tool from Los Alamos National Laboratory and CPFD Software, LLC.	GMV web site
PLOT2D	Plot3d files	*.p2d *.g *.q	Plot3d is a plotting program and file format from NASA. Plot2d is a specialized variant for 2D grids.	Plot3d format
PLOT3D		*.x *.q *.vp3d
Tecplot	Tecplot ASCII and binary files	*.tp *.plt *.tec	Tecplot is another popular visualization tool. VisIt can read the ASCII and binary versions of the Tecplot file format, though VisIt's reader does not support all contents of all Tecplot files, such as custom labels or auxiliary data records. VisIt may also be more strict with regards to file formatting; Tecplot itself is very permissive in interpreting files.	Tecplot home page
Vis5D	Vis5D files	*.v5d	Vis5d is a free OpenGL-based volumetric visualization program for scientific data sets in 3+ dimensions.	Vis5d+ home page
VTK	VTK legacy format	*.vtk	The VTK legacy format is an ASCII-based format with straightforward structure, and an easy way to get a variety of mesh based data (structured, unstructured, particle, etc.) into VisIt with minimal complication. This format does support binary chunks for performance/size improvements, but this is still subject to the various limitations of the pure ASCII version, so those seeking large, portable, binary data containers might investigate formats based on scalable I/O libraries.	VTK file format docs ASCII VTK Files
	VTK XML format	*.vts *.vtr *.vtu *.vti *.vtp	The VTK XML formats were created to address some limitations of the original, legacy VTK formats. They are by definiton, more complex, though, so those seeking simple ways to get data into VisIt might find the legacy format more appealing.
Xmdv	Xmdv	*.okc	File format used by XmdvTool, a public-domain software package for the interactive visual exploration of multivariate data sets.	Xmdv file format description
XSF	XCrySDen Structure File	*.xsf	XSF files contain molecular/crystalline and structured grid data. These are output by various electronic structure and materials codes (e.g. PWscf/Quantum ESPRESSO).	Definition of XSF file at the XCrySDen home page
Graphics Formats These formats are designed for graphics uses such as digital content creation, computer aided design, or other graphics domains other than visualization.
Plug-in Name	Format Name	Typical File Names	Description	Links
Image	JPEG	*.jpg *.jpeg	Various common image-based file formats.
	PNG	*.png
	BMP	*.bmp
	PPM	*.ppm
	PNM	*.pnm
	TIFF	*.tiff *.tif
	SDT	*.sdt + *.spr	The SDT format is an image format developed for the Stimulate fMRI analysis software.	Stimulate User's Guide
	Image volume	*.imgvol	A sequence of images which are interpreted as a regular volumetric data set. The *.imgvol file is a text file containing the names of the files to assemble into the 3D volume. Optional lines at the top of the file may include: "Z_START: <val>", and/or "Z_STEP: <val>", which specify the placement and spacing of the slices.
RAW	raw triangle mesh	*.raw	A RAW file contains triangle meshes, and is used by CAD programs, POV-Ray, etc. It is an ASCII text file that contains 1 triangle per line, and the line consists of 9 floating point numbers making up the coordinates.
STL	Stereolithography CAD file	*.stl	STL (stereolithography) is an ASCII or binary file used in manufacturing. It is a list of the triangular surfaces that describe a computer generated solid model. This is the standard input for most rapid prototyping machines.	STL Wikipedia entry
TSurf	tsurf files	*.ts_deg83	This is a triangle surface format used for representing terrain from USGS. Used by GOCAD software.	GOCAD home page
WavefrontOBJ	Wavefront Object	*.obj	Object files contain geometry that can be included in visualizations. The format was developed by Wavefront.	file format info Wikipedia entry
General ASCII Data Formats These formats allow for easy importing of simple ASCII data of various styles.
Plug-in Name	Format Name	Typical File Names	Description	Links
Curve2D	2D x/y pair ASCII data	*.curve *.ultra *.u *.ult	ASCII text file format containing pairs of x,y floating point values on each line. This file format is convenient for importing curve plots into VisIt. The curve format can store more than one curve provided you supply a variable name as a comment, beginning with "#".	Getting Data into VisIt
Lines	ASCII lines data		Simple ASCII text connected points data format.	Lines3D
PlainText	Plain ASCII text files	-	The PlainText reader supports various ways of reading data from tab-delimited, comma-delimited, or whitespace-delimited text files, and interpreting them as 1D columns or 2D regular grids. It has various options for how to interpret and parse the ASCII data.	PlainText reader instructions
Point3D	ASCII 3D point data	*.3D	Point3D is a simple ASCII text format for 3D particles that have 1 scalar variable. This format can be useful for scripts or simple particle simulations that want an easy way to get particle data into VisIt.	Reading point data
Debugging and Testing Formats These formats are for testing VisIt and make good examples of how to write simple file reader plugins.
Plug-in Name	Format Name	Typical File Names	Description	Links
Hex	-	*.hex	Example reader for unstructured hexahedral single-domain data.
Rect	-	*.rect	Example reader for rectilinear, multi-domain data with ghost zone communication.
StreamGhostTest	-	-	This is a plugin used for testing streaming ghost zone communication. It generates data instead of reading it from a file.
Special-purpose Formats These formats are typically accessed in conjunction with another reader or specific features in VisIt, and are not intended to be used directly.
Plug-in Name	Format Name	Typical File Names	Description	Links
AugDecomp	augmented decomposition data	*.augd	This is a format which specifies auxiliary material information as a addition to another file format (without materials).
ExtrudedVol	extruded volume data	*.exvol	A file format designed to efficiently write out temporal-analysis results on the fly to minimize memory usage.
SimV1	In-situ connection	*.sim1, *.sim2	These readers are designed to read data from properly-instrumented running simulation code, for in-situ analysis and visualization.
SimV1Writer
SimV2
ZipWrapper	compressed format wrapper	*.gz *.bz2 *.zip	Provides access to other formats stored inside compressed files by decompressing files on the fly as VisIt is processing them. This allows a majority of the files in a time series for example to remain compressed on disk while keeping only the most recently processed timesteps on disk uncompressed.
Unknown Formats -- Need More Information
Plug-in Name	Format Name	Typical File Names	Description	Links
CMAT		*.cmat
TFT	TFT file format	*.dat *.tft	(TFT is an ASCII text format for specifying X/Y curves.? Is TFT a code?)