Building ParaView with ADIOS2

x3d2 writes output in the ADIOS2 BP format. To visualise these files in ParaView, ParaView must be built from source with ADIOS2 support enabled. This guide walks through building ADIOS2 and ParaView with the flags required to read x3d2 output.

Note

If you already have a ParaView installation with ADIOS2 support (check Help -> About for the VTK::IOADIOS2 module), you can skip this guide entirely.

Prerequisites

You will need the following tools installed on your system:

  • A C/C++ compiler — GCC is recommended (tested with GCC 14.2). Do not use nvc++; it fails on VTK’s template-heavy C++ code.

  • CMake 3.12 or newer (tested with 3.31.3).

  • MPI — any MPI implementation that uses your C/C++ compiler (e.g. OpenMPI, MPICH). Verify with mpicc -show; it should report gcc, not nvc.

  • Python 3 (3.3+) — required if you want to script ParaView with pvpython.

  • Qt 5.15+ — required only if you want the ParaView GUI. Omit if you only need CLI scripting (pvpython / pvbatch).

Note

x3d2 can be compiled with NVHPC and its bundled MPI. ParaView requires GCC. This is not a problem — the BP file format is compiler-independent, so a GCC-built ParaView reads NVHPC-built x3d2 output without issues.

Tip

On HPC systems that use environment modules, load GCC-based toolchains before building (e.g. module load CMake OpenMPI). Make sure OPAL_PREFIX is not set to an NVHPC path — unset it if necessary (unset OPAL_PREFIX).

Step 1: Build ADIOS2

Full installation instructions are available in the ADIOS2 installation guide. Below is a summary of the steps with the specific options needed for use with ParaView and x3d2.

Clone the ADIOS2 source:

git clone https://github.com/ornladios/ADIOS2.git ADIOS2

Configure and build:

ADIOS2_SRC=$PWD/ADIOS2
ADIOS2_INSTALL=$HOME/adios2-install

mkdir adios2-build && cd adios2-build

cmake $ADIOS2_SRC \
  -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=gcc \
  -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=g++ \
  -DCMAKE_Fortran_COMPILER=mpifort \
  -DMPI_C_COMPILER=mpicc \
  -DMPI_CXX_COMPILER=mpicxx \
  -DADIOS2_USE_Fortran=ON \
  -DADIOS2_USE_CUDA=OFF \
  -DADIOS2_USE_MPI=ON \
  -DADIOS2_BUILD_EXAMPLES=OFF \
  -DADIOS2_BUILD_TESTING=OFF \
  -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$ADIOS2_INSTALL

make -j$(nproc)
make install

The key options here are:

  • ADIOS2_USE_Fortran=ON — needed because x3d2 is a Fortran code.

  • ADIOS2_USE_CUDA=OFF — CUDA is not needed for the ParaView reader.

  • ADIOS2_USE_MPI=ON — enables parallel I/O.

Step 2: Build ParaView

Full build instructions for all platforms (Linux, macOS, Windows) are available in the ParaView Build Guide. Below are the specific CMake flags needed to enable ADIOS2 support for x3d2.

Clone ParaView (replace v6.0.1 with your desired version):

git clone https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview.git
cd paraview
git checkout v6.0.1
git submodule update --init --recursive

Configure and build:

ADIOS2_INSTALL=$HOME/adios2-install

mkdir build && cd build

cmake .. \
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
  -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=gcc \
  -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=g++ \
  -DPARAVIEW_USE_MPI=ON \
  -DMPI_C_COMPILER=mpicc \
  -DMPI_CXX_COMPILER=mpicxx \
  -DPARAVIEW_ENABLE_ADIOS2=ON \
  -DADIOS2_DIR=$ADIOS2_INSTALL/lib/cmake/adios2 \
  -DPARAVIEW_USE_PYTHON=ON

make -j$(nproc)

Important

  • PARAVIEW_ENABLE_ADIOS2=ON is required. Without it, ADIOS2_DIR is silently ignored.

  • ADIOS2_DIR must point to <install-prefix>/lib/cmake/adios2, not just the install prefix.

With or without the GUI:

  • To build the full ParaView GUI, install Qt 5.15+ and ensure it is discoverable by CMake (the default PARAVIEW_USE_QT=ON will find it).

  • To build CLI (scripting only via pvpython / pvbatch / pvserver), add -DPARAVIEW_USE_QT=OFF. This is useful on HPC clusters without display servers.

Verifying the build:

After CMake configuration completes, check the output for:

  • Found ADIOS2: ... (found suitable version ...) — confirms ADIOS2 was detected.

  • VTK::IOADIOS2 listed among the enabled VTK modules.

Step 3: Verify Installation

Test that ParaView loads correctly:

./build/bin/pvpython -c 'from paraview.simple import *; print("ParaView OK")'

Test opening a BP file produced by x3d2:

cat > /tmp/test_bp.py << 'EOF'
from paraview.simple import *
r = OpenDataFile("/path/to/your/file.bp")
for prop in r.ListProperties():
    print(prop, "=", r.GetPropertyValue(prop))
EOF
./build/bin/pvpython /tmp/test_bp.py

Replace /path/to/your/file.bp with the path to an actual BP file from an x3d2 simulation. If the script prints the file’s properties without errors, the installation is working.

Troubleshooting

  • ADIOS2_DIR unused warning — You forgot -DPARAVIEW_ENABLE_ADIOS2=ON.

  • MPI initialisation errors mentioning /proj/nv/... — OPAL_PREFIX is set to an NVHPC path. Run unset OPAL_PREFIX.

  • nvc++ compile errors in VTK — Use GCC. Rebuild both ADIOS2 and ParaView with GCC.

  • pvpython hangs — Check your MPI environment. Try export OMPI_MCA_btl=self,tcp.