Tecplot conversion and expected point cloud format?

[James Haley]

Hello Rob, (and VSP Community)

Recently I was given a very special geometry file for an aircraft, which I have been asked to 3D print, (so the ultimate goal is a .stl file).

The problem is that it is in a Tecplot format or .plt which I have found no support in that software or in other tools to convert it to a traditional 3d object or file type. 

So far I have extracted the data points and constructed a .ply file format, which I tried to mesh in meshlab with little to no success.

My thoughts with openVSP are to either

1) Import via point cloud, and learn how to use the new Fit model feature 

or 

2) set up custom cross sections using the data points and work in a standard VSP fashion.

I need to know if anybody has a better way to go from Tecplot to a more traditional 3d file type.

also, what point cloud format is openVSP expecting for the import feature (.pts) there seems to be a bunch of them out there.

happy holidays!

James Haley

PhD. Student

AVD lab UT-Arlington

[Rob McDonald]

I believe TecPlot has some export capabilities, possibly including STL
files. I would start with that.

Is the data a structured or unstructured grid?

If you can't get TecPlot to output a STL file, you really would prefer
to keep the connectivity information you have. If it is structured,
you could try to build a *.hrm file that VSP could read in -- VSP
would be able to convert that to a STL file. Otherwise, if it is an
unstructured format, you could get it into *.tri or *.stl and VSP
could read that in -- of course at that point, you might as well write
a STL yourself.

The VSP Points file format is very simple. Three columns x y z. One
point per line. That is it.

Rob

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[James Haley]

It is a structured grid

I only have Tecplot 10 (an older version) and it has no useful export functions, however I am waiting on a response from them on whether a newer version does have such a capability. 

I have used the .hrm file type once, and I know there is some documentation out there I can sort through so this will be my second choice if I have no direct tecplot options. (should be a good winter break project).

Thanks for the advice,

I'll post if I get anywhere with it.

James H.

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[James Haley]

Well I attempted to manually convert it into a *.hrm file type, which for the most part seems to work except I have strange connections where I shouldn't.

the .plt format has # i , # j  (cross sections / pts per Xsection) and then a list of points, very similar to the Hermite file. So i simply adjusted the formatting and copy pasted over.

will the model only being a half mesh cause issues? 

Also the model isn't a "closed" mesh, which i mention because it looks as if the geometry is attempting to close by connecting the first Xsection to the last.

any thoughts?

On Mon, Nov 30, 2015 at 3:17 PM, Rob McDonald <rob.a.m...@gmail.com> wrote:

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