3D Visualization: VisIt

WarpX results can be visualized by VisIt, an open source visualization and analysis software. VisIt can be downloaded and installed from https://wci.llnl.gov/simulation/computer-codes/visit.

openPMD (HDF5)

WarpX’ openPMD files can be visualized with VisIt 3.1.0+. VisIt supports openPMD HDF5 files and requires to rename the files from .h5 to .opmd to be automatically detected.

Plotfiles (AMReX)

Assuming that you ran a 2D simulation, here are instructions for making a simple plot from a given plotfile:

  • Open the header file: Run VisIt, then select “File” -> “Open file …”, then select the Header file associated with the plotfile of interest (e.g., plt10000/Header).

  • View the data: Select “Add” -> “Pseudocolor” -> “Ez” and select “Draw”. You can select other variable to draw, such as jx, jy, jz, Ex, …

  • View the grid structure: Select “Subset” -> “levels”. Then double click the text “Subset-levels”, enable the “Wireframe” option, select “Apply”, select “Dismiss”, and then select “Draw”.

  • Save the image: Select “File” -> “Set save options”, then customize the image format to your liking, then click “Save”.

Your image should look similar to the one below

picture

In 3D, you must apply the “Operators” -> “Slicing” -> “ThreeSlice”, You can left-click and drag over the image to rotate the image to generate image you like.

To make a movie, you must first create a text file named movie.visit with a list of the Header files for the individual frames.

The next step is to run VisIt, select “File” -> “Open file …”, then select movie.visit. Create an image to your liking and press the “play” button on the VCR-like control panel to preview all the frames. To save the movie, choose “File” -> “Save movie …”, and follow the instructions on the screen.