Tecplot ASCII#

.tec read + write eager

Summary of the specification#

A Tecplot ASCII data file opens with an optional TITLE and a VARIABLES list naming every column, then one or more ZONE records. A finite-element zone declares its node and element counts (N=, E=), its element shape (ZONETYPE=FETRIANGLE, FEQUADRILATERAL, FETETRAHEDRON, FEBRICK) and its data packing. DATAPACKING=POINT interleaves all variables per node; DATAPACKING=BLOCK writes each variable’s full column in turn. The connectivity list follows the nodal data.

Specification at a glance#

header	TITLE = “…” then VARIABLES = “X” “Y” “Z” …
zone record	ZONE T=”name”, N=…, E=…, ZONETYPE=…, DATAPACKING=…
zone types	FETRIANGLE, FEQUADRILATERAL, FETETRAHEDRON, FEBRICK
packing	POINT (per node) or BLOCK (per variable)
connectivity	1-based node indices, one element per line
other suffixes	.dat is read via fmt=”.tec”

Read the full Tecplot ASCII specification ↗

Reading#

import polyxios as px

mesh = px.read("model.tec")
mesh.vertices          # (n, 3)
mesh.element_types     # element groups found in the file

Writing#

px.write(mesh, "out.tec")

This codec takes no format-specific options.

Quirks worth knowing#

Both POINT and BLOCK packing are read; finite-element zones are supported, ordered (structured) zones are not.
Variables beyond the coordinate columns are read as named vertex attributes, so solution fields survive the round trip.
.dat files are recognised when the codec is named explicitly: px.read("flow.dat", fmt=".tec").