Supported Formats
Format Table
| Format | Read | Write | Extension | Split |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HDF5 | yes | yes | .h5, .hdf5 |
no |
| Plot3D grid | yes | yes | .x, .xyz |
no (grid only) |
| Plot3D solution | yes | -- | .q |
no (flow only) |
| Tecplot ASCII | yes | yes | .dat |
no |
| Tecplot binary | yes | yes | .plt |
no (requires pytecplot) |
| Fortran unformatted binary | yes | yes | -- | low-level I/O |
| Raw binary (+ header) | yes | yes | .s8 |
yes -- requires grid file |
HDF5
Grouped layout with /grid and /flow groups. Supports single and
multi-timestep layouts. Root-level attributes store scalar metadata
(Mach, Re, etc.).
Plot3D
Standard NASA Plot3D structured grid format. Binary (Fortran unformatted) and ASCII variants are auto-detected. 2-D and 3-D grids supported.
Tecplot
ASCII .dat files in both POINT and BLOCK data packing. Binary .plt
files require the pytecplot package (pip install cfd-io[tecplot]).
Raw Binary
Split formats store grid and flow data in separate headerless binary files. A companion header file provides the grid dimensions, variable names, and timestep indices.