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VTK Export API Reference

Mera does not render volumes itself. It writes VTK files, and you open those in ParaView, the narrative guides are Intro, Hydro and Particles, which cover the ParaView side: colormaps, lighting and camera work all happen there, not in Julia.

Export

Mera.export_vtk — Function

Export particle data to VTK format for visualization in tools like ParaView.

  • export data that is present in your database and can be processed by getvar() (done internally)
  • select scalar(s) and their unit(s)
  • select a vector and its unit (like velocity)
  • export data in log10
  • creates binary files with optional compression
  • supports multi-threading

-> generates VTU files; each particle is represented as a vertex point with associated scalar and vector data.

export_vtk(
    dataobject::PartDataType, outprefix::String;
    scalars::Vector{Symbol} = [:mass],
    scalars_unit::Vector{Symbol} = [:Msol],
    scalars_log10::Bool=false,
    vector::Array{<:Any,1}=[missing, missing, missing],
    vector_unit::Symbol = :km_s,
    vector_name::String = "velocity",
    vector_log10::Bool=false,
    positions_unit::Symbol = :standard,
    chunk_size::Int = 50000,
    compress::Bool = false,
    max_particles::Int = 100_000_000,
    verbose::Bool = true,
    myargs::ArgumentsType=ArgumentsType()
)

Arguments

Required:

  • **dataobject::PartDataType:*** needs to be of type "PartDataType"
  • outprefix: The base path and prefix for output file (e.g., "foldername/particles" will create "foldername/particles.vtu").

Predefined/Optional Keywords:

  • scalars: List of scalar variables to export (default is particle mass); from the database or a predefined quantity (see field: info, function getvar(), dataobject.data)
  • scalars_unit: Sets the unit for the list of scalars (default is :Msol).
  • scalars_log10: Apply log10 to the scalars (default false).
  • vector: List of vector component variables to export (default is missing).
  • vector_unit: Sets the unit for the vector components (default is km/s).
  • vector_name: The name of the vector field in the VTK file (default: "velocity").
  • vector_log10: Apply log10 to the vector components (default: false).
  • positions_unit: Sets the unit of the particle positions (default: code units); usefull in paraview to select regions
  • chunk_size::Int = 50000: Size of data chunks for processing (reserved for future optimizations).
  • compress: If false (default), disable compression.
  • max_particles: Maximum number of particles to export (caps output if exceeded), (default: 100000000)
  • verbose: If true (default), print detailed progress and diagnostic messages.

For maps you can display directly in Julia: see the Projections API and Off-axis Projection API. Mera's Makie support activates automatically once a Makie backend such as CairoMakie is loaded.

Every docstring in the package is also on the Complete API Reference.