The UGRID Reader ParaView Plugin

We developed a visualization component in collaboration with the "Numerical Methods in Geosciences" group.

The CF-conventions allow storing unstructured data defined at a series of points. However, it is often necessary to have additional information about the topology of the underlying unstructured mesh, i.e. is it a one dimensional network, a 2D triangular mesh or a flexible mixed triangle/quadrilateral mesh, a 2D mesh with vertical layers, or a fully unstructured 3D mesh. In this context, the UGRID reader plugin implements the UGRID conventions, a proposal by the UGRID Interoperability group for storing unstructured model data in NetCDF files. The UGRID Conventions extend the CF-conventions with topology specifications and are increasingly popular with an important subset of the CF community, so that they warrant the development of a customized reader.

For visualization purposes with ParaView, this translates into a customized plugin that enables the reading and rendering of UGRID meshes stored in the NetCDF file format. Currently, the UGRID Reader supports 2D unstructured triangular, quadrilateral and mixed triangle/quadrilateral meshes, while the data can be defined per cell or per vertex.

The UGRID Reader source code on github

View the UGRID playlist on YouTube (5 videos)