Loading Data

Use the File→Load Data command to load a data file using the Load Data dialog, shown below.

Normally, this dialog works slightly differently on Windows and non-Windows platforms. The controls at the bottom of the dialog are different. For example, this is the lower portion of the dialog as seen on CentOS Linux.

On Windows, you can switch to this version of the Load Data dialog by choosing Options→Use Extended Load Data Dialog. Using this version of the dialog on Windows may be slower to navigate depending on your network; however, you may want to try it if you regularly load multiple data files from more than one directory.

On any platform, you may use the Load Data dialog to navigate to the file you wish to open, or simply type or paste the filename or the full pathname of the file in the File Name field.

The Files of Type menu below the file list allows you to choose a data loader corresponding to the format of data file that you wish to load, or you may select All Files to see all the files in the directory and have Tecplot 360 automatically choose a loader for you if possible. When you choose a loader, the file list changes to show only files that can be loaded by that loader.

Available file formats include:

Loading by Position

In most CFD data formats, it is valid to have multiple variables with the same name. When loading such a file, Tecplot 360 warns you that this situation exists and offers to load the variables by position: each variable will be identified by the order in which it appears in the file rather than by its name. This may make some aspects of working with the data different or more complicated.

For example, when manipulating data using equations, you must use the V# syntax to refer to such duplicate variables, rather than the {VariableName} syntax, as the latter cannot uniquely identify the variable. (See Data Alteration through Equations.) Macros and Python scripts may also be affected.

When possible, we advise obtaining a data file with a unique and consistent name for each variable, for example by adjusting your solver’s configuration.

Appending or Replacing Data

You may append new data to your dataset at any time by choosing File→Load Data. You cannot append a grid file that contains only FE connectivity data without appending a solution file along with it. In addition, to append a solution file you must also append a grid file at the same time. In this case, the grid file must be loaded before the solution file.

Some loaders allow you to choose how you wish to append or replace data.

Depending on the circumstances, you may have the following choices:

Loading and Combining Variables from Multiple Files

In Tecplot 360, you can load multiple data files in two different ways:

The Variable Load and Combine dialog appears when loading multiple data files in certain formats, whether you load the files all at once or append new data to previously-loaded data, if the names of the variables in the data files do not match. The dialog allows you tell Tecplot 360 which variables (if any) have the same meanings across the files, as well as which variables should not be loaded at all.

This feature works only with data in the following formats:

The Variable Load and Combine dialog appears only when the files you are loading do not all contain exactly the same variable names (or, when appending, if the variable names in the file being loaded do not exactly match those of the data already loaded). When all variable names match in the files being loaded, this dialog does not appear; instead, Tecplot assumes that all the variables have the same meaning in all the files.

The dialog allows you to indicate that variables with different names have the same meaning (referred to as combining the variables) in two different ways.

The two methods can also be used together. For example, you might first apply a variable alias file that deals with the most common equivalent variables in your typical data sets, then clean up any remaining variables (uncommon variables, or variables that don’t always have a well-defined meaning) by hand.

The dialog has the following parts:

Variables that have the same name are automatically combined, as this is almost always what you will want to have happen. They appear in blue in the Variables to Load list. If you do not want this to happen, load the files one at a time and, before loading the file with duplicate variable names, rename the existing variables you do not want to combine with newly-loaded variables of the same name. (You can rename variables by double-clicking them in the Data Set Information dialog.

Combining Variables Manually

To combine two variables manually, telling Tecplot 360 that they have the same meaning, you select the first variable in the Available Variables list and the second in the Variables to Load list, then click the Combine button. The combined variable is added to the Variables to Load list and given a name consisting of both original variable names separated by a semicolon.

If the variables to be combined are in the Available Variables list, as may be the case when loading all the files at once instead of appending, select one in the Available Variables list and click Add Selected to select it to be loaded. Then combine them as above.

If there are more than two variables that have the same meaning, combine the first two, then select the combined variable in the Variables to Load list and combine it with the next variable having the same meaning in the Available Variables list as above.

You may combine multiple sets of variables at a time. If you select more than one variable in the Available Variables list, and the same number in the Variables to Load list, clicking Combine combines the first selected variable from the Available Variables list with the first selected variable from the Variables to Load list, the second with the second, and so on.

You may not combine variables from the same file.

Creating and Using a Variable Alias File

The variable_aliases.txt file found in the Tecplot 360 installation directory lists sets of variables that should be considered equivalent. See Custom Files loaded on Startup for information about how variable aliases are loaded.

The variable_aliases.txt file must begin with a !VA 1 line to indicate that it is a variable alias file (format version 1). On subsequent lines, the character indicates the beginning of a comment; everything following the on a line is ignored. Variable aliases are specified by listing the equivalent names on a line separated by semicolons. For example:

Variable names found in this file are case-insensitive. Excess whitespace is ignored.

When you click Apply, Tecplot 360 combines variables as indicated in variable_aliases.txt. Where two or more files contain variables whose names appear on the same line, these variables are combined, and the resulting Tecplot 360 variable is given a name containing the original variable names (as they appear in the datasets being loaded) separated by semicolons. The new variables then appear in the Variables to Load list in the dialog.

For example, if you load two files with the variables "P" and "Pressure," and the lines shown above appear in the variable_aliases.txt file, when you click Apply, these two variables appear in the Variables to Load list as a single variable called either "P;Pressure" or "Pressure;P" depending on the order in which the files were loaded.

If multiple lines in variable_aliases.txt might apply to the data sets being loaded, these conflicts are resolved based on the order in which the files are loaded. For example, if you load three files containing variables "M," "Mach," and "Mass," in that order, and variable_aliases.txt contains lines equating "M" with "Mach" and also "M" with "Mass," the resulting data set would have a variable named "M;Mach" and a second variable "Mass." Because the file containing the variable "Mach" was loaded before the file containing the variable "Mass," "M" was combined with "Mach" when that file was loaded and cannot also be combined with "Mass."

You may change the names of combined variables after loading the data by double-clicking the variable in the Data Set Information dialog (Data Set → Data Set Info).

With All Files and All Supported Files, Tecplot 360 tries to automatically choose a loader based on the names of the files you select.

With All Files, you see literally all of the files in the directory you’re browsing. With All Supported Files, you see the files that Tecplot 360 knows it can load using any of the installed loaders, based on the files' names, but excluding other files. Either choice allows you to load files without having to specify in advance what loader will be used.

These options are particularly useful if you regularly work with multiple data file formats, or (in the case of All Files) if your data files often have unconventional names, such as a nonstandard or absent filename extension.

If the names of the selected files unambiguously indicate a single data file format, the appropriate loader is automatically chosen and the data is loaded without further ado. If more than one loader might be able to open the files, or if the files chosen do not have names that are recognized as belonging to a particular loader, the Choose Loader dialog appears. This dialog may recommend one or more loaders in a "Suggested Loaders" section at the top of the list. Choose the loader to be used, then click OK.

All selected files must be in the same format.

The CGNS Loader supports files created with CGNSLib Version 4.1.2 or earlier with either ADF or HDF5 internal representation. You can choose to load either all or specific bases, zones, and solutions into Tecplot 360 zones. You can also select field variables individually, or define index ranges to load specific sub-zone blocks or planes for structured-grid zones.

The CGNS Loader dialog has the following options:

Use the CONVERGE CGNS loader to load post*.cgns files produced by CONVERGE. This loader does not have any Advanced Options and will load all supplied variables. Multiple files may be loaded via the Load Data dialog. Multiple files will be separated into separate zones in Tecplot.

Use the CONVERGE HDF5 loader to load post*.h5 files produced by CONVERGE. This loader does not have any Advanced Options and will load all supplied variables. Multiple files may be loaded via the Load Data dialog. Multiple files will be separated into separate zones in Tecplot.

Use this loader to load in ASCII .out files produced by CONVERGE. This loader does not have any Advanced Options and will load all supplied variables. If CONVERGE .out files specify different "Locations" for variables then those locations will be translated into separate zones in Tecplot.

The DEM Loader allows you to load Digital Elevation Map files that have the same file format as the U.S. Geological Survey’s standard DEM format. The DEM Loader will not accept Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS) formatted data.

DEM files are available on the Web for a number of states within the U.S. For more information, refer to www.webgis.com/terr_us1deg.html

The DEM Loader first launches a multi-file selection dialog. After choosing one or more DEM files to load, you are presented with a simple dialog where you can set the I and J-skipping. For large DEM files, you may want to set both of these to be 10 or more.

The DXF Loader add-on can import AutoCAD® DXF™ (drawing interchange) files. When importing a file, Tecplot 360 creates an appropriate geometry for each of the following entity types:

The EnSight Data Loader allows you to load EnSight Gold and EnSight 6 files of types case (.case or .encase), geometry (.geo), or variable (.*). Geometry and variable files can be in either ASCII or binary format, although binary is recommended. Files from earlier versions of EnSight need to be resaved in Gold format using File→Save→Geometric Entities. To determine what format the files are in, view the case file and look under the FORMAT section.

EnSight data is stored in a case file, which contains references to all associated geometry and variable files. Loading the case file will load all the associated files. EnSight parts are translated into zones with the caveat that unstructured parts with dissimilar element types (i.e. a volume element and a surface element) will only load the primary element type. Unstructured zone names will be prefixed by the type of zone they represent (point, line, surface, or volume). Vector, tensor, and tensor9 variables are expanded into the appropriate number of variables with the variable name followed by a suffix. Complex 'imaginary' variables will have an 'I' following the name to distinguish them from the 'real' variable.

When loading Ensight data, choose the desired case file, and the associated data files will be loaded.

The Excel Loader can read numeric data from .xls files for Microsoft® Excel® version 5.0 or higher.

The Excel Loader is intended primarily for users who record experimental or simulation data using Excel. Your Excel file must contain only values (no equations). We recommend the use of the Excel add-on from the Util/Excel folder as an easier method to open Excel data with Tecplot 360 (see Excel Add-In). Use the Text Spreadsheet loader for delimited files (Text Spreadsheet Loader).

If your spreadsheet is arranged as Table Format or Carpet Format, the Excel Loader is a point-and-click operation. Once you have selected an Excel file to load, the Excel Loader leads you through a series of dialogs, prompting you to specify a variety of attributes, including the data format in the Excel spreadsheet, the variables to be read, and zone information.

The Exodus file format is based on the netCDF file structure created by Sandia National labs. The Exodus library functions provide the mapping between FE data objects and netCDF dimensions, attributes, and variables. The accepted Exodus file extensions are *.e, *.e.*, *.exo, *.exo.*, *.exoII, *.exoII.*, *.g, *.g.*, *.gen and *.gen.*.

Tecplot 360 includes the ability to load input and solution files from many popular finite element analysis (FEA) solvers. Supported formats include:

The file formats supported for each solver’s formats are:

The FLOW-3D loader allows you to load restart and selected FLOW-3D data files into Tecplot 360. This loader supports Flow3D 11.0.1.15.

The FLOW-3D Loader dialog has the following options:

The FLUENT® Data Loader reads FLUENT Version 5 and newer case (.cas) and data (.dat) files up to and including version 14.0. To load files from earlier versions of FLUENT, you must first import them into FLUENT 5 or newer, then resave them in the newer format.

Particle data may also be loaded from an accompanying XML file. If loading a single .dat/.cas pair, all sections of particle data in an accompanying XML file are loaded. If loading multiple .dat/.cas pairs, one particle section is loaded from the XML file for each .dat/.cas pair loaded. If the XML file is invalid, particle data will be skipped, but the rest of the data will continue to be loaded.

When possible, and assuming the user has the necessary permissions to create new files in the directory containing the FLUENT files, the FLUENT loader creates an index file for each case and data file it loads. These files are stored in a subdirectory called tecplot-derived located in the same directory as the case and data files and are used to load the data faster in future sessions. The FLUENT loader assumes that any files it finds in the tecplot-derived directory relate to the case and data files found in the parent directory. If the FLUENT data files are updated, delete the files in the tecplot-derived directory so that the FLUENT loader will regenerate them. (Be sure all Tecplot 360 sessions using the files are closed first.)

Tecplot 360 does not automatically calculate CFD variables from your existing FLUENT data variables. You may add the variables to your plots by performing calculations via the Analyze menu. Refer to CFD Analysis for details.

Additionally, Tecplot 360 does not perform the same wall-boundary calculations that are performed by FLUENT. Instead, the cell-centered data will be extrapolated to the boundary.

See also Time Aware for information on working with transient datasets in Tecplot 360.

The following options are available:

For all load options above, except Load Multiple Case and Data Files, the following controls are available:

For the Load Multiple Case and Data Files load option, the following controls are available:

For the load options other than Load Residuals, some or all of the following controls are available:

If you chose the Select Zones and Variables to Load option, select only those zones and variables you wish to load from the files Fluent Loader Options dialog.

This dialog has a Zones page and a Variables page. The left-hand list of each page shows, respectively, all zones and variables contained in the files you selected. The right-hand list of each page shows the zones and variables that will be loaded when you select OK. Use the Move, Move All, Remove, or Remove All buttons to edit the Zones/Variables to Load lists.

The "Fluent Common Fluid Files Loader" is a loader based on ANSYS’s latest, HDF5 file format for its Fluent solver. Loader instructions, following Tecplot’s Standard Syntax, are given to Tecplot’s $!ReadDataset command to control how the case and data files are loaded.

The FVCOM Loader allows you to import netCDF files output from FVCOM into Tecplot 360. Currently, classic netCDF and netCDF-4 formats are supported. The loader imports one or more FVCOM history outputs with the same topology and variable structure into a single Tecplot dataset, creating one zone for each time step. FVCOM history outputs with differing topology or variable structure can be combined but only through appending.

The X and Y grid variables are loaded directly from the file and projected to each Z position, which is derived from the zeta, h and siglev variables. The grid variables are chosen based upon the Coordinate System specified in the FVCOM attribute data. If no Coordinate System is provided, Cartesian is assumed.

The following auxiliary data is added to the data by the loader:

The vertical level and layer variables are added for visualization of FVCOM model layers. FVCOM variables stored at the nodes of each sigma level are loaded as nodal variables and variables stored at the elements for each sigma layer are loaded as cell-centered variables. FVCOM variables stored at the nodes of each sigma layer are interpolated to the volume cell-centers ignoring any FVCOM specified boundary conditions. Variables located at the elements of each sigma level are ignored. Attributes for the file and each variable are loaded into dataset and variable auxiliary data respectively.

The General Text Loader add-on allows you to read ASCII text data files in a variety of formats. You can specify variable and dataset title information or indicate specific places to read them from in your data file. Instruction settings for reading a type of file can be saved and restored so they do not have to be entered again each time a new file of the same type is loaded.

The following options are available:

The HDF Loader add-on can load 1D, 2D, and 3D Scientific Data Sets (SDS) from HDF files.^[1] When a dataset from an HDF file is imported, the file is scanned and a list of all SDS in the file is displayed in the Scientific Data Sets to load portion of the HDF Loader dialog. Select one or more SDS to import. Every SDS that you select must have the same dimension. A rectangular I, IJ, or IJK-ordered zone (for 1, 2, or 3D data, respectively) is created for each SDS that you select to load.

The HDF Loader dialog has the following options:

You may also click Select File to choose a different file.

The HDF5 loader add-on allows you to import general HDF5 files into Tecplot 360. The loader provides a mechanism for importing generic data from multiple HDF5 datasets or groups. The HDF5 loader will load datasets within user selected groups, load one or more user selected datasets to one zone, load multiple user selected datasets to multiple zones, execute macros after data has been loaded, create implicit X, Y, and Z grid vectors as needed, sub-sample loaded data, and reference user selected vectors for X, Y, and Z grids. Datasets must be ordered data. The HDF5 library used is version 1.12.0.

The Kiva loader imports GMV format files that were exported from Kiva.

The PLOT3D Loader add-on can import data files formatted in PLOT3D format, developed by Pieter Buning at the NASA Ames Research Center.

Use this loader^[4] to load 3D triangular surface files with the .ply extension. This format is often used to store surfaces generated from tessellation of 3D range measurement data. Files may be either ASCII or binary, but must contain both vertex and face elements (sections). This loader is included in your Tecplot 360 installation.

The PVD Data Loader loads VTK (Visualization Toolkit) files which have the filename extension .pvd. The PVD format is essentially a header file that collects together other VTK XML-based data files, such as VTI, VTP, VTU, etc.

Opening a single PVD file loads all supported files embedded within it. All zones created from a PVD file will be assigned the same strand ID.

The PVD loader does not have the advanced options dialog but supports advanced options via the macro language by augmenting the PVD Data Loader instructions in the $!READDATASET command of a layout or macro file. Multiple PVD files can loaded at once.

The PVD Data Loader will read the <FieldData> section of the files and add any scalars it finds to the zone’s auxiliary data. The loader can be instructed to use time scalar values for zone solution times if all of the files have a scalar named "time" or "timevalue". The PVD loader can optionally detect a consistent pattern of incrementing numeric values in the names of the files themselves and use them for the zone’s solution time. If the loader cannot follow the instruction it is given, because not all of the files have the "time" scalar or because there is no consistent pattern of values in the filenames, it will not assign a solution time or strand ID.

To tell the loader how to assign solution times, add the name/value pair SOLUTIONTIMESOURCE <setting> to the loader instructions. The settings are listed below.

This section describes the process for loading Tecplot-format data files with the extensions .dat for ASCII files and .plt for binary files. Some other products that write Tecplot binary files use the filename extension .bin or .tec, and these are also recognized by the Tecplot-Format loader. (Refer to the Data Format Guide for information on outputting data into Tecplot 360 file format.)

There are four ways to create and work with Tecplot-format data files:

See also Tecplot Subzone Loader for information on loading the newer subzone file format (.szplt), which is optimized for working interactively with larger files. It is straightforward for developers to upgrade software that writes Tecplot binary files using the TecIO library to write subzone files.

The Subzone Loader (SZL or "Sizzle") allows you to visualize large data files on typical engineering workstations by loading only the data required for a particular operation. Unlike the previous load-on-demand capability, Subzone Load can load partial zones instead of entire zones. This capability requires a new file format, .szplt, which can be loaded using the Tecplot Subzone Loader.

Data can be converted to the .szplt format manually, by loading it into Tecplot 360 and then writing it in SZL format (see Data File Writing). For information on batch-converting files to SZL format, see Batch Converting to SZL Format.

The Tecplot Subzone Loader is used for loading .szplt files stored on your local disk or on a standard network share (that is, a share that is supported by your computer’s operating system). To load files from a Linux remote host on which Tecplot SZL Server is installed, see Loading Remote Data using Tecplot SZL Server.

The Tecplot Layout loader is used for loading Tecplot layouts (.lay) and layout packages (.lpk). Layouts include only links to the original data files; layout packages include the subset of data needed to view the layout. See Layout Files, Layout Package Files, Stylesheets for more details on creating these files.

Usually it is most convenient to load these kinds of files using the Welcome screen, the File→Open Layout or File→Recent Layouts commands, or double-clicking the file in your file manager (e.g. Windows Explorer). However, you can also load layouts and layout packages by choosing File→Load Data and selecting this loader in the Load Data dialog.

This loader has no options; simply choose the desired .lay or .lpk file, and it will be opened.

The Telemac Data Loader reads Telemac SERAFIN- and SERAFIND-formatted (.slf, .srf, .sel or .res) and boundary (.cli or .conlim) files. You may select multiple SERAFIN and SERAFIND files, but only a single boundary file for a single load.

To load a boundary file, you must either load it along with one or more SERAFIN[D] files, or else append it to an existing Telemac data set. It does not include its own X or Y variables, but rather contains references to node numbers in a corresponding SERAFIN[D] file. It is loaded as a single I-ordered zone. If loaded along with one or more SERAFIN[D] files, the boundary zone’s X and Y values will be extracted from the first zone of the first SERAFIN[D] file. If appended to existing data, the boundary zone’s X and Y values will be extracted from the first zone of the data set.

Telemac solution (SERAFIN) files may be successfully interactively loaded with the Telemac loader even if the file suffix (.slf, .srf, .sel or .res) has been stripped off. However, boundary files must have extension (.cli or .conlim) in order to load.

SERAFIN[D] files contain variable names, which are used for the resulting data set variables. Boundary files contain no variable names, and add the following variables (unless noted below, refer to Telemac documentation for their meaning):

The Text Spreadsheet Loader add-on allows you import simple data from ASCII files. Select the delimiter and I-skip (if necessary) from the Simple Spreadsheet File Loader dialog.

the Text Spreadsheet Loader dialog has the following options:

The Text Spreadsheet Loader can read ASCII files of the following format (blank lines are ignored):

Here is an example of a valid ASCII spreadsheet file:

The TRIX Data Loader loads TRIX files, which have the filename extension .trix. TRIX is an XML-based unstructured file format used by Cart3D and related solvers and is a subset of the Visualization Toolkit VTU format. Only triangle surface data can be loaded. The TRIX loader has no advanced options and can load only one file at a time.

The VTI Data Loader loads structured data VTK (Visualization Toolkit) files which have the filename extension .vti. The VTI format is an XML-based format representing a topologically and geometrically regular data. Examples include volumes (voxel data) and pixmaps. The representation supports images up to three dimensions.

The VTI loader does not have the advanced options dialog but supports advanced options via the macro language by augmenting the VTI Data Loader instructions in the $!READDATASET command of a layout or macro file. Multiple VTI files can loaded at once.

The VTI Data Loader will read the <FieldData> section of the files and add any scalars it finds to the zone’s auxiliary data. The loader can be instructed to use time scalar values for zone solution times if all of the files have a scalar named "time" or "timevalue". The VTI loader can optionally detect a consistent pattern of incrementing numeric values in the names of the files themselves and use them for the zone’s solution time. If the loader cannot follow the instruction it is given, because not all of the files have the "time" scalar or because there is no consistent pattern of values in the filenames, it will not assign a solution time or strand ID.

To tell the loader how to assign solution times, add the name/value pair SOLUTIONTIMESOURCE <setting> to the loader instructions. The settings are listed below.

The VTK Data Loader loads unstructured VTK (Visualization Toolkit) files which have the filename extension .vtu. The VTU format is an XML-based format used by solvers. The loader is designed to work with ASCII, inline-binary, and appended formats with "raw" or "base64" encoding and either big or little-endian byte ordering, with or without ZLib compression. The supported VTK cell types are Vertex, Line, Triangle, Pixel, Quad, Tetra, Voxel, Hexahedron, Wedge, and Pyramid. These types are loaded into Tecplot 360 as ordered-point, FE-Lineseg, FE-Triangle, FE-Quad, FE-Tetra, and FE-Brick data. The VTK loader has no advanced options dialog but does provide advanced options that can be set via the macro language by augmenting the VTK Data Loader instructions in the $!READDATASET command of a layout or macro file.

Multiple VTU files can loaded at one time or appended to an existing dataset. Multiple VTU files loaded at one time must all have the same number of variables (VTK DataArray elements) and the same variable names in the same order.

The VTK Data Loader can also load .pvtu and .vtm files. A .pvtu file is a parallel VTU file that references one or more VTK data files and assembles them together to form a single zone, one for each .pvtu file. A .vtm file is a multi-block file that references one or more VTK data files and assembles them into multiple zones, one for each data file referenced.

The VTK Data Loader will read the <FieldData> section of the files and add any scalars it finds there to the zone’s auxiliary data. If all of the files have a scalar named "time" or "timevalue" in the <FieldData> section, the loader can use the "time" scalar variable for the zone’s solution time. If the loader is instructed to use the "time" scalar for solution time, it will not add the "time" scalar to the zone’s auxiliary data. The VTK loader can optionally detect a consistent pattern of incrementing numeric values in the names of the files themselves and use them for the zone’s solution time. If the loader cannot follow the instruction it is given, because not all of the files have the "time" scalar or because there is no consistent pattern of values in the filenames, it will not assign a solution time or strand ID.

To tell the loader how to assign solution times, add the name/value pair SOLUTIONTIMESOURCE <setting> to the loader instructions. The settings are listed below.

The VTP Data Loader loads unstructured data VTK (Visualization Toolkit) files which have the filename extension .vtp. The VTP format is an XML-based format representing a geometric structure consisting of vertices, lines, polygons, and/or triangle strips. Point and cell attribute values (e.g., scalars, vectors, etc.) also are represented.

The VTP loader does not have the advanced options dialog but supports advanced options via the macro language by augmenting the VTP Data Loader instructions in the $!READDATASET command of a layout or macro file. Multiple VTP files can loaded at once.

The VTP Data Loader will read the <FieldData> section of the files and add any scalars it finds to the zone’s auxiliary data. The loader can be instructed to use time scalar values for zone solution times if all of the files have a scalar named "time" or "timevalue". The VTP loader can optionally detect a consistent pattern of incrementing numeric values in the names of the files themselves and use them for the zone’s solution time. If the loader cannot follow the instruction it is given, because not all of the files have the "time" scalar or because there is no consistent pattern of values in the filenames, it will not assign a solution time or strand ID.

To tell the loader how to assign solution times, add the name/value pair SOLUTIONTIMESOURCE <setting> to the loader instructions. The settings are listed below.

Tecplot SZL Server is a lightweight server that you can install on a remote Linux host (such as a computer cluster) to get access to your data when it is not practical to move the data off the cluster to a local drive or to a network file share, and when you cannot reasonably run Tecplot 360 on the remote host using a remote desktop setup. Usually this is due to slower network speeds between the remote host and the visualization workstation.

Tecplot SZL Server runs only on Linux hosts and serves only SZL data, since it is the subzone loading capability of SZL format that makes it practical to visualize your data over slower connections. Clients can be any platform supported by Tecplot 360.

You can load SZL data from a remote host using Tecplot SZL Server using the Load Remote Data command on the Tecplot 360 File menu. Choose Load Remote Data command on the Tecplot 360 File menu to open the Remote Data Load Options dialog.

The Remote Data Load Options dialog offers three ways to connect to the remote SZL Server:

If you are using either of the first two modes, choose it in the dialog, then specify:

Then click the Connect button to establish the connection. This may take a few seconds.

Once the connection has been established, the Select Files button becomes enabled. Click Select Files to choose a file to open. The Select File dialog appears.

After you choose the files you wish to open and click Open, you return to the Load Remote Data dialog with those files listed in the bottom panel. Click OK to proceed with opening the files. Tecplot 360 opens the files and displays the initial plot.

Tecplot 360 employs load-on-demand to allow you to start working with your data as soon as possible. With load-on-demand, after you load a data file, the actual loading of individual variables may be deferred until the variables are actually needed. Depending on available memory, some variables may even be loaded, then unloaded, and then loaded again.

Load-on-demand requires that Tecplot 360 keep the data file(s) being used open while you are using them to create plots, which may present problems if you need to update the data files during this time.

If you have a workflow that requires a Tecplot 360 data file be overwritten while it is in use (most likely to simulate real-time data acquisition or a similar process), the following is suggested as a possible solution.

In this example, the cycle on the top illustrates the method used for Tecplot 360 to update flow.plt and the cycle on the bottom illustrates the method used by the application that generates the data to update flow.plt. Both systems are checking for the existence of read.lock. If you are using a macro in Tecplot 360 to do this, then you can use the extended macro command, query.fileexists, to determine if the file exists. If the file exists, Tecplot 360 will disconnect from flow.plt, copy flownew.plt to flow.plt, and delete read.lock. If read.lock exists and the application that generates the data has an update for flow.plt, the application should either wait a few seconds and try-again or skip the data set (this is determined by the application, not Tecplot 360). If the file does not exist, the application that generated the data is free to copy new data to flownew.plt.

If you use a macro in Tecplot 360, you can use the capabilities of extendmcr to query for file existence. Disconnecting from flow.plt can be done in a number of ways, one of which is to issue a $!NEWLAYOUT command. This will completely disconnect Tecplot 360 from the dataset and thus from the associated data file.

The file read.lock is like a baton. If it exists, then flownew.plt is said to be "owned" by Tecplot 360. If it does not exist, then flownew.plt is said to be "owned" by the data producing application. flow.plt is always owned by Tecplot 360.

One minor issue not addressed in the above example is what the data producing application should do if the data is being read by Tecplot 360. It can either block (wait) until Tecplot 360 is finished or discard the current solution and go back to generating another one.