Replace legacy VTK output with XML VTU/PVD across dfnWorks
@hymanjd is already working on this.
Since Jun 18, 2026.
Assessment
This issue has not been assessed yet.
Description
Summary
dfnWorks currently writes legacy ASCII .vtk files for flow and transport visualization output. These should be replaced with XML .vtu (VTK Unstructured Grid) files and .pvd (ParaView Data Collection) time series files.
Motivation
Legacy VTK is a deprecated format. XML VTU/PVD offers several concrete advantages:
- Time series support —
.pvdfiles encode actual simulation times, so ParaView's time slider maps to physical time rather than sequential file indices - Modern format —
.vtuis the current VTK standard and is better supported by ParaView, VisIt, and downstream Python tooling (pyvista,vtk) - Extensibility — XML VTU supports binary and compressed data arrays, which will matter as mesh sizes grow
- Consistency — the new TOUGH output parser (
parse_tough_output) already writes VTU/PVD; the PFLOTRAN parser should match
Scope
parse_pflotran_h5— currently writes legacy.vtk; switch to.vtu+.pvdparse_pflotran_vtk_python— same- Any other dfnWorks routines that write
.vtkoutput - Update output directory names from
pflotran_vtk_outputs→pflotran_vtu_outputsfor consistency - Update documentation and example notebooks
- Dominant language
- Python
- Stars
- 97
- Forks
- 55
- Avg merge
- 1m
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 2
Getting set up
This project ships no dev container, Dockerfile or contributing guide, so setting up is up to you: start from its README, and see our first-contribution guide for the general steps.
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
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