<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Hi Marissa,<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The main reason why one would want to dump plotfiles more frequently and use them in analysis is disk space. Checkpoint files dump _everything_—every grid variable, all the particles, and all of the metadata. Though you may want all the metadata, you may not want all of the grid variables—most simulations have extra variables that you likely will not use in analysis (e.g., do you really need both "eint" and "ener" to do analysis, even though the code does for evolution? Probably not). </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Plotfiles give you the ability to dump only the variables you will use in analysis more frequently than checkpoints, which are (as you said) usually thought to be only for restarts. You can also dump particle files. I typically dump both plotfiles and particle files at the same cadence. In the end, you will likely save a lot of disk space if you use plotfiles and particle files. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Best,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">John</div><div class=""><br class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Jan 18, 2017, at 2:58 PM, Marissa Adams <<a href="mailto:madams@pas.rochester.edu" class="">madams@pas.rochester.edu</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">Hi all,<br class=""><br class="">I am wonder if there is an advantage to using <i class="">plt</i> files in comparison to <i class="">chk</i> files as I am considering just using <i class="">chk</i> for primary output. I want to make sure I am not losing any physics by doing so.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br class=""></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif" class="">The documentation clearly alludes to <i class="">chk</i> files being necessary for restarts. One can make the </span><font face="monospace, monospace" class="">plotfileIntervalTime = checkpointFileIntervalTime</font><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" class="">, as well as have one be < and > the other, and the code still runs.</font><br class=""><br class=""><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" class="">I also considered if perhaps plot/refinement variables specified in a <i class="">flash.par</i> would not necessarily be there -- all the information is there, as to be expected (re: restarts).<br class=""><br class="">I suppose my questions can be well defined as, aren't <i class="">plt</i> files a little redundant if checkpoint files are sufficient, and contain more information (for restarts, particles, etc)? Are <i class="">plt</i> files more easily handled in some visualization software other than VisIt and yt (since checkpoint files are handled just fine there)?<br class=""><br class="">Best,<br class="">Marissa</font></div><br clear="all" class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div>-- <br class=""><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr" class=""><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" style="font-size:12.8px" class=""><font size="1" face="monospace, monospace" class=""><span style="" class="">Marissa Adams <font size="1" class="">E-mail:<a class=""> </a><a href="mailto:madams@pas.rochester.edu" target="_blank" class="">madams@pas.rochester.edu</a></font><br class="">PhD Student Ph: (585) 402-5779</span></font></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-size:12.8px" class=""><font size="1" face="monospace, monospace" class=""><span style="" class="">University of Rochester Website: <a href="http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~madams/" target="_blank" class="">http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~madams/</a></span></font></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-size:12.8px" class=""><font size="1" face="monospace, monospace" class=""><span style="" class="">Department of Physics & Astronomy</span></font></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-size:12.8px" class=""><font size="1" face="monospace, monospace" class=""><span style="" class="">108 Bausch & Lomb Hall<br class="">P.O. Box 270171</span></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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