# xdmf file size limitation due to ASCII encoding?

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/xdmf-file-size-limitation-due-to-ascii-encoding/17444
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [February 16, 2026, 12:25pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/xdmf-file-size-limitation-due-to-ascii-encoding/17444 "2026-02-16T12:25:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![violettinged](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/5f9b8f/32.png) [@violettinged](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/violettinged)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2026, 12:25pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/xdmf-file-size-limitation-due-to-ascii-encoding/17444/1 "2026-02-16T12:25:08Z")

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Is there an inherent size limit for plain text `.xdmf` files (ASCII encoding) containing both the metadata and heavy data? I noticed that in this case the `Xdmf3ReaderT` crashes even for simplistic meshes if the number of elements is larger than about 500k. The files are most likely valid, they have been created by established software and show no abnormalities during inspection. Files with a smaller number of elements can be opened without any problems.