H5TOVTK(1)							      h5utils								H5TOVTK(1)

NAME

       h5tovtk - convert datasets in HDF5 files to VTK format

SYNOPSIS

       h5tovtk [OPTION]... [HDF5FILE]...

DESCRIPTION

       h5tovtk	is a program to generate VTK data files from multidimensional datasets in HDF5 files.  VTK, the Visualization ToolKit, is an open-
       source, freely available software system for 3D computer graphics, image processing,  and  visualization.   VTK	itself	is  a  programming
       library, but it is also the basis for a number of end-user graphical visualization programs.

       HDF5  is a free, portable binary format and supporting library developed by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the Uni-
       versity of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.  A single h5 file can contain multiple datasets; by default, h5tovtk takes the first dataset,  but
       this can be changed via the -d option, or by using the syntax HDF5FILE:DATASET.

       1d/2d/3d  datasets are converted into 3d VTK datasets.  Normally, a single scalar VTK dataset is output, but vectors and fields can be out-
       put via the -o option below.

       A typical invocation is of the form 'h5tovtk foo.h5', which will output a VTK data file foo.vtk from the data in foo.h5.

OPTIONS

       -h     Display help on the command-line options and usage.

       -V     Print the version number and copyright info for h5tovtk.

       -v     Verbose output.

       -o file
	      Save all the input datasets to a single VTK file.  If there is only one dataset, it is output to a VTK scalar dataset; if there  are
	      three datasets, they are output as a VTK vector dataset; all other numbers of datasets are combined into a VTK field dataset.

	      Otherwise,  the  default behavior is to save each dataset to a separate VTK file, with the .h5 suffix of the input filename replaced
	      by .vtk in the output filename.

	      Only three-dimensional datasets may be written to the VTK file.  If you have a four (or more) dimensional data set,  then  you  must
	      take  a  three-dimensional "slice" of the multi-dimensional data.  To do this, you specify coordinates in one (or more) slice dimen-
	      sion(s), via the -xyzt options.

       -1, -2, -4
	      Use 1 , 2, or 4 bytes to store each data point in the output file.  Fewer bytes require less storage and memory, but  will  decrease
	      the  resolution in the values.  -1 will break up the data values into one of 256 possible values (on a linear scale from the minimum
	      to the maximum value in your data), -2 will allow 65536 possible values, and -4 (the default) will use 4-byte floating-point numbers
	      for an "exact" representation.

       -a     Output in ASCII format; otherwise, VTK's more compact, but less readable and somewhat less portable binary format is used.

       -n     For  binary  output  (see  -a  above),  by default the data is written in bigendian byte order, which is normally the order that VTK
	      expects.	However, some external tools and a few VTK classes use the native byte ordering instead (which may not be bigendian),  and
	      the -n option causes h5tovtk to output binary data in the native ordering.

       -m min, -M max
	      When  -1	or -2 are used, the input data are converted to a linear integer scale.  Normally, the bottom and top of this scale corre-
	      spond to the minimum and maximum values in the data.  Using the -m and -M options, you can make the bottom and top of the scale cor-
	      respond  to  min	and  max  instead, respectively.  Data values below or above this range will be treated as if they were min or max
	      respectively.  See also the -Z option.

       -Z     For -1 or -2 output, center the linear integer scale on the value zero in the data.

       -r     Invert the output values (map the minimum to the maximum and vice versa).

       -x ix, -y iy, -z iz, -t it
	      This tells h5tovtk to use a particular slice of a multi-dimensional dataset.  e.g.  -x uses the subset (with one less dimension)	at
	      an  x index of ix (where the indices run from zero to one less than the maximum index in that direction).  Here, x/y/z correspond to
	      the first/second/third dimensions of the HDF5 dataset. The -t option specifies a slice in the last dimension, whichever  that  might
	      be.  See also the -0 option to shift the origin of the x/y/z slice coordinates to the dataset center.

       -0     Shift  the  origin  of  the x/y/z slice coordinates to the dataset center, so that e.g. -0 -x 0 (or more compactly -0x0) returns the
	      central x plane of the dataset instead of the edge x plane.  (-t coordinates are not affected.)

       -d name
	      Use dataset name from the input files; otherwise, the first  dataset  from  each	file  is  used.   Alternatively,  use  the  syntax
	      HDF5FILE:DATASET,  which allows you to specify a different dataset for each file.  You can use the h5ls command (included with hdf5)
	      to find the names of datasets within a file.

BUGS

       Send bug reports to S. G. Johnson, stevenj@alum.mit.edu.

AUTHORS

       Written by Steven G. Johnson.  Copyright (c) 2005 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

h5utils 							   March 9, 2002							H5TOVTK(1)