Error when loading .foam file in Paraview

ParaView Support
1

Hello everybody,

I am very new to OpenFOAM and Paraview.

Currently I try to simulate a 2D backward-facing step with OpenFOAM and do the postprocessing with Paraview.

I am using OpenFOAM v1912 with Docker on my MacBookPro from 2013 and Paraview 5.9.
When loading the .foam file in Paraview I get the following error:

ERROR: In /opt/glr/paraview/paraview-ci/build/superbuild/paraview/src/VTK/IO/Geometry/vtkOpenFOAMReader.cxx, line 5226
vtkOpenFOAMReaderPrivate (0x7fc1a7e32950): Error opening /Users/Daniel/Documents/OpenFOAM/BFS_DNS/constant/polyMesh/faces.gz: Can’t open. If you are trying to read a parallel decomposed case, set Case Type to Decomposed Case.

ERROR: In /opt/glr/paraview/paraview-ci/build/superbuild/paraview/src/VTK/Common/ExecutionModel/vtkExecutive.cxx, line 753
vtkPVCompositeDataPipeline (0x600003ce3f00): Algorithm vtkPOpenFOAMReader(0x7fc1a7cc3e30) returned failure for request: vtkInformation (0x600001ba9080)
Debug: Off
Modified Time: 1670090
Reference Count: 1
Registered Events: (none)
Request: REQUEST_DATA
FROM_OUTPUT_PORT: 0
ALGORITHM_AFTER_FORWARD: 1
FORWARD_DIRECTION: 0

But this only happens, when I increase the number of cells. If I have a relatively coarse mesh, I can load the .foam file and see the mesh and also the results. I didn’t make any options with decomposed mesh.

I already updated Paraview to the newest version but the error remains. Opening the .foam file on another machine doesn’t make any problems. It happens only on my laptop.

I read, that one can also use the foamToVTK command to create a file which can be opened in Paraview. But when executing this command I get the following error:
–> FOAM FATAL ERROR:
Cannot find file “points” in directory “polyMesh” in times “0” down to constant

From function virtual Foam::IOobject Foam::fileOperation::findInstance(const Foam::IOobject&, Foam::scalar, const Foam::word&) const
in file global/fileOperations/fileOperation/fileOperation.C at line 870.

FOAM exiting

Did anybody of you have some similar problems and may help me? I would really appreciate it. I don’t know what to do anymore …

Many thanks in advance.

Best regards,
Daniel

2

Hi Daniel. Can you share one instance of your files? (you might want to scramble/strip any confidential data first)

3

Hi Joachim, thank you for your reply. Which files do you exactly mean? Sorry for this silly question …

4

I mean one file that produces those errors.

5

Hello Joachim,

today I had time again to deal with my problem. I deleted everything and started from scratch. Now everything is working fine. It seemed that there was something from the beginning wrong. I hope I won’t have any problems in the future. If so, I would upload the corresponding files and appreciate your help. Sorry for stealing your time …

Best regards,
Daniel

6

The happiness was short-lived, I have now the same error, except that ParaView can’t open the “points” file instead of the “faces” file. I might also have an idea of why this problem occurs. When I have a look in the polyMesh folder, all files are TextEdit.app files except the points-file which is a Unix executable. When I delete the points file, copy a file with the right format and rename it to points then run blockMesh again, I can open the .foam file in ParaView. Do you have an idea of how to bypass OpenFoam to create Unix executables?