- Website:
- http://www.ParaView.org/
- Developer(s):
- Kitware
- System(s):
- All (most compile from Source)
- License:
- Kitware Open-Source (Modified BSD)
ParaView was created by Kitware in conjunction with Jim Ahrens at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Contributors and developers of ParaView currently include Kitware, LANL, Sandia National Laboratories, and Army Research Laboratory. ParaView is funded by the US Department of Energy ASCI Views program as part of a 3-year contract awarded to Kitware, Inc., by a consortium of three National Labs - Los Alamos, Sandia, and Livermore. The goal of the project is to develop scalable parallel processing tools with an emphasis on distributed memory implementations. The project includes parallel algorithms, infrastructure, I/O, support, and display devices. One significant feature of the contract is that all software developed is to be delivered open source. Hence, ParaView is available as an open-source system.
Details
ParaView supports a few different operating modes:
- Single-User - The user runs the application just like any other application, with all data existing on the local machine and all processing done on the local machine.
- Client-Server Mode - The user runs a lightweight
client on the local machine and runs the server on a separate
remote machine. The data will be loaded by the server, and the
server will be responsible for all computation. Rendering can
be done on either the Remote or Local system, depending on the
configuration.
(Customized versions of client-server installations have been prebuilt specifically for connecting to HPC Systems. See below). - Client-Distributed Server Mode - The user runs a lightweight client on the local machine and runs multiple servers on a separate cluster, typically using MPI. Data will be loaded on the remote server, and the server will be responsible for all computation. Rendering can be done in parallel across the many servers with the results properly composited and sent back to the client, or the rendering can be performed locally.
- Client-Distributed Data-Distributed Render mode - Just like Client-Distributed Server mode except a second set of servers is started on a separate "Graphics" Cluster, typically with graphics accelerating hardware. The data server is responsible for loading and processing the data. The graphics cluster is responsible for properly rendering and compositing the results and sending them back to the client.
ParaView and the SRD Utility
Additionally, the SRD utility provides a virtual desktop served from a graphics node where ParaView can be run as well. The desktop is displayed back to the user's local workstation (Linux, Mac, or Windows) via TurboVNC built into the SRD software. Click here for more information regarding SRD.
Downloading the customized HPC Client-Server Software
ParaView installation tgz/zip files (for Linux, Mac, and Windows workstations) can be installed from the links below. For setup instructions, see the readme.
ORS-Realmed users wishing to obtain this software must contact the HPC Helpdesk to request a copy.
Note (1) Catalina Users
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