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 University 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 output 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  dimension(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 correspond 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 correspond 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)