Efficient way to store time dependent data

ParaView Support
1

Hello,

I need to visualize time dependent data that corresponds to a large grid. So far, I have been using a .pvd file to store a link to individual .vtu files that include the grid information and the data for each individual time step, which works fine. However, it requires saving the grid information in each individual file, which is not efficient.

Is there a better way to do this? For example, save a link to the grid information and other links to individual files with the time dependent data? I know it is possible with XDMF files, but I prefer to stay away from it since I find it rather complicated and poorly documented.

Thanks for your help,

Paulo

2

To the best of my knowledge, there is no way to represent a time series with .pvd/.vtu without replicating the grid information. If you want that, you will have to use a different file format.

I believe XDMF supports this as you say. The Exodus II file format also can store multiple time steps that share the same geometry.