Tip Build A Paraview3 Plugin

In current Versions of Paraview3 there is no support for OpenFOAM (although the VTK can read OF-Files). To add that:

Download Paraview3-Sources and compile them (that's the hard part)

Create a directory (OFPlugin or so). In that directory add the files
- CMakeLists.txt:

FIND_PACKAGE(ParaView REQUIRED)
INCLUDE(${PARAVIEW_USE_FILE})
ADD_PARAVIEW_PLUGIN(OpenFOAMGUIPlugin "1.0" 
                    GUI_RESOURCES foamReader.qrc )

- foamReader.qrc:

 
<RCC>
    <qresource prefix="/ParaViewResources" >
        <file>foamReader.xml</file>
    </qresource>
</RCC>

- foamReader.xml:

 
<ParaViewReaders>
  <Reader name="OpenFOAMReader"
          extensions="controlDict foam"
          file_description="OpenFOAM Files">
  </Reader>
</ParaViewReaders>

In that directory do

ccmake .

Specify the path where you compiled paraview and generate the Makefiles
A simple make should produce a dynamic library (the Plugin)

Now to use that plugin:

start paraview
go to the Tools-Menu - Plugin Manager
Load the dynamic library you generated as a Client-Plugin
now the file open-Dialog knows about OpenFOAM (the file to "open" is the controlDict)

Notes:

Caution: currently the Reader can't deal with gzipped files. Make sure everything in your cases is unzipped. Otherwise paraview might hang (and crash) while opening the case
The good people of Kitware intend to enable the OF-Reader by default (then all this won't be necessary)
Altanatively, on ParaView 3.0.2 (at least, I still haven't tried other ParaView3 versions) you can turn on OpenFOAMReader as a builtin reader by adding

 
  <Reader name="OpenFOAMReader"
          extensions="controlDict foam"
          file_description="OpenFOAM Files">
  </Reader>

to ParaView3/Qt/Components/Resources/XML/ParaViewReaders.xml in the ParaView3 source tree before configureing ParaView3 with ccmake. -- 7islands 14:12, 5 Oct 2007 (CEST)