Skip to content

Paraview

ParaView is an open-source, cross-platform data visualization and analysis tool that allows users to create visualizations and analyze large datasets. It was developed to process and visualize scientific and engineering data, such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, seismic data, medical imaging, and climate data.

ParaView provides a graphical user interface (GUI) that enables users to interactively explore and visualize data. It supports a wide range of data formats and allows users to customize and manipulate visualizations to suit their needs. Additionally, ParaView provides a scripting interface that allows users to automate repetitive tasks and create custom analysis pipelines.

ParaView is widely used in a variety of scientific and engineering fields, including aerospace, automotive, biomedical, energy, and geosciences, among others. It is actively developed and maintained by Kitware, a software company that specializes in open-source solutions for scientific computing and data analysis.

Availability

Software Version Dependent Toolchain Module Load Command
ParaView 5.11.2-egl - module load ParaView/5.11.2-egl
ParaView 5.11.2-osmesa - module load ParaView/5.11.2-osmesa
ParaView 5.13.2 foss/2024a module load foss/2024a ParaView/5.13.2

Application Information, Documentation

The documentation of ParaView is available at ParaView manual. To use ParaView on the cluster, users need to use the same version of ParaView on their local machine. You can download the ParaView from ParaView official download page

Using ParaView

ParaView supports GPU acceleration, which can significantly improve performance and reduce processing times for certain types of data and operations. GPU acceleration is particularly useful for large datasets with many points or cells, as well as for operations such as volume rendering and streamlines. You can use ParaView with GPU acceleration, but you need to use GPU nodes on our cluster. ParaView is also designed to work in parallel environments, and it supports the Message Passing Interface (MPI) standard for distributed computing. With MPI support, ParaView can be used to visualize and analyze large-scale datasets on clusters.

Sample Batch Script to Run ParaView with MPI support: pvserver_cpu.submit.sh 
 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
#!/bin/bash -l
#SBATCH --job-name=pvserver_cpu
#SBATCH --output=%x.%j.out # %x.%j expands to slurm JobName.JobID
#SBATCH --error=%x.%j.err # prints the error message
#SBATCH --partition=general
#SBATCH --nodes=1
#SBATCH --ntasks-per-node=32
#SBATCH --mem-per-cpu=4000M # Maximum allowable mempry per CPU 4G
#SBATCH --qos=standard
#SBATCH --account=PI_ucid # Replace PI_ucid which the NJIT UCID of PI
#SBATCH --time=71:59:59  # D-HH:MM:SS
################################################
#
# Purge and load modules needed for run
#
################################################
module purge
module load wulver # Load the slurm, easybuild 
module load ParaView/5.11.2-osmesa 
################################################
#
# Open an ssh tunnel to the login node
#
################################################
# Run on random port
port=$(shuf -i 6000-9999 -n 1)
HOST=$(hostname)
if [ $(hostname) == $HOST ]; then
  /usr/bin/ssh -N -f -R $port:localhost:$port login02.tartan.njit.edu
fi
################################################
cat<<EOF

pvserver is running on: $(hostname)
Job starts at: $(date)

Step 1: Create SSH tunnel

Open new terminal window, and run:
(If you are off campus you will need VPN running)

ssh -L $port:localhost:$port $USER@login02.tartan.njit.edu
EOF
################################################
# Run MPI pvserver
#
################################################
host_list=$(srun hostname -s | sort | uniq | paste -s -d, -)
mpiexec -np $SLURM_NTASKS -rmk slurm -hosts $host_list pvserver --server-port=$port --force-offscreen-rendering

To use ParaView with GPU, you need to use the following job script

Sample Batch Script to Run ParaView with GPU support: pvserver_gpu.submit.sh 
 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
#!/bin/bash -l
#SBATCH --job-name=pvserver_gpu
#SBATCH --output=%x.%j.out # %x.%j expands to slurm JobName.JobID
#SBATCH --error=%x.%j.err # prints the error message
#SBATCH --partition=gpu
#SBATCH --nodes=1
#SBATCH --ntasks-per-node=16
#SBATCH --gres=gpu:1
#SBATCH --mem-per-cpu=4000M # Maximum allowable mempry per CPU 4G
#SBATCH --qos=standard
#SBATCH --account=PI_ucid # Replace PI_ucid which the NJIT UCID of PI
#SBATCH --time=71:59:59  # D-HH:MM:SS
################################################
#
# Purge and load modules needed for run
#
################################################
module purge
module load wulver # Load slurm, easybuild
module load ParaView/5.11.2-egl
################################################
#
# Open an ssh tunnel to the login node
#
################################################
port=$(shuf -i 6000-9999 -n 1)
HOST=$(hostname)
if [ $(hostname) == $HOST ]; then
     /usr/bin/ssh -N -f -R $port:localhost:$port login02
fi
################################################
cat<<EOF

pvserver is running on: $(hostname)
Job starts at: $(date)

Step 1: Create SSH tunnel

Open a new terminal window on your local machine, and run:
(If you are off campus you will need a VPN running)

ssh -L $port:localhost:$port $USER@login02.tartan.njit.edu
EOF
################################################
#
# Run MPI pvserver
#
################################################

host_list=$(srun hostname -s | sort | uniq | paste -s -d, -)

mpiexec -np $SLURM_NTASKS -rmk slurm -hosts $host_list pvserver --server-port=$port --force-offscreen-rendering

Submit the job script using the sbatch command: sbatch pvserver_gpu.submit.sh or sbatch pvserver_cpu.submit.sh. Once you submit the job, please open the output file with .out extension, and get the port number from the output file. Once you open the output file (with .out extension) and go to the end of the file, you should see the following 

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Step 1: Create SSH tunnel

Open new terminal window, and run:
(If you are off campus you will need VPN running)

ssh -L 1234:localhost:1234 user@login01.tartan.njit.edu
Waiting for client...
Connection URL: cs://n0003:1234
Accepting connection(s): n0003:1234

Next, open a new terminal and type

ssh -L $port:localhost:$port $USER@login02.tartan.njit.edu

where $port corresponds to the port number. Once you open ParaView from your local machine go to File --> Connnect, and you will see a dialogue box with the name Choose Server Configuration. You need to select Add Server option and there you need to use the following as shown below.

Make sure to use the same port number in Port option. Once you add the server, you need to select Connect to connect ParaView to the cluster.

Note

The port number may change every time you submit the job. In that case, you need to modify the port number by selecting the Edit Server option. The step to modify the server is shown in the above tutorial.

  • Tecplot

User Contributed Information

Please help us improve this page

Users are invited to contribute helpful information and corrections through our Github repository.