PLOT 3D

 I.  Platform, Price, and Company

• Platforms :  o VAX computers running VMS Version 5.0 and DISSPLA Version 11.0
                          o Generic UNIX and DISSPLA Version 11.0
                          o CRAY 2/UNICOS, CONVEX, and ALLIANT computers with a remote Silicon Graphics IRIS 2xxx/3xxx or IRIS 4D workstation
                          o Silicon Graphics IRIS 2xxx/3xxx or IRIS 4D workstation
                          o Apollo computers running UNIX and GMR3D Version 2.0
                          o Generic Unix supercomputer with SGI workstation 
                          o DEC/VMS with DISSPLA graphics software
                          o In addition, third-party software may be available to run the SGI version (which uses IRIS-GL) on other platforms
  

• Prices       :   It depend on which type of Plot3d, the prices range from  $400 - $500 for software, and $65 for documents and manual

• Company :  Originally designed by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
                          National Technology Transfer Center (NTTC) is managing software distribution for NASA.
                          (or Open Channel Foundation at http://www.openchannelfoundation.org/orders/index.php?group_id=44)

•  PLOT3D     :            http://www.openchannelfoundation.org/projects/PLOT3D

• The impact of PLOT3D has been widespread and significant. One of its first important contributions was "to establish a link between the experimental (physical) solutions of wind tunnels and CFD simulations,".The software, available on several computer platforms, has been used in a variety of NASA and military aircraft, space, and missile programs, as well as in private industry. PLOT3D is credited with enhancing the development of graphical workstation technology. PLOT3D is an interactive graphics program designed to help scientists visualize computational fluid dynamics (CFD) grids and solutions.PLOT3D offers more functions and features, and has been adapted for more types of computers than any other CFD graphics program.PLOT3D is part of a computational fluid dynamics software cycle. The VAX/VMS/PHIGS and DEC RISC ULTRIX/PHIGS implementations of PLOT3D can use any graphics device supported by PHIGS. Site-specific graphics capabilities will be dependent upon the graphics device being us TURB3D is a modification of PLOT3D which is used for viewing CFD simulations of incompressible turbulent flow. 

                                    
                                    http://www.uni-koblenz.de/~yasko/F-16.htm
                                    http://www.nttc.edu/cosmic/pub/PLOT3D.html
                                    http://www.miasrl.com/software/golpe/manual/iaplot3d.html
                                    http://www.cc.gatech.edu/scivis/research/particlef15/particlef15.html
                                    http://www.pagendarm.de/schorsch/papers/viscourseslides_delft_pagendarm.pdf

• PLOT3D can calculate any one of 74 grid, scalar, vector, particle-trace, and shock-wave functions; 
  output can be displayed on-screen from any angle, printed, plotted, and animated, PLOT3D lacks a menu
  interface common in current-generation visualization programs, its command-line interface is fairly 
  straightforward to learn and has allowed it to be ported to different machines more easily.

• GRID FUNCTIONS for walls (geometry), grids, outlines of blanked-out regions, and grid-check diagnostics;
• SCALAR FUNCTIONS for contour or carpet plots of density, pressure, temperature, Mach number, vorticity magnitude, helicity, etc.;
• VECTOR FUNCTIONS for vector plots of velocity, vorticity, momentum and density gradient;
• PARTICLE TRACE FUNCTIONS for tracing streamlines of vortex lines; and
• SHOCK FUNCTIONS for finding and plotting shock locations.

    Key Features:

• Grid:                                   The grid is a single-block, planar grid generated using the Fortran program.
                                              The grid is evenly spaced with a grid density of 100 axial grid points and 7 radial grid points. 
                                              A Plot3d file (formatted, single-block, whole, two-dimensional).
• Initial Conditions:              The initial flow conditions are stationary flow with different pressures and 
                                              density on each side of the diaphragm.
• Boundary Conditions:        The INVISCID WALL boundary condition is applied at the J1 and JMAX boundaries of the grid. 
                                              The FROZEN boundary condition is applied at the I1 and IMAX boundaries of the grid.
                                              The boundary conditions are specified using GMAN. 
• Computation Strategy:      The computation is performed using the time-marching capabilities of WIND to march in a time-accurate 
                                              manner to simulate the unsteady flow. A constant time step is specified to be used for each time step. 
                                              The number of time steps is specified such that the desired time interval is spanned. 
• Input Parameters and Files:       Including following the command keyword: inviscid, axisymmetric, stages, implicit none, 
                                              cycles, iterations, time steps, history, spawn.
• Computation:                     The list file contains the output from the computation and lists the residual information for all of the iterations.
• Convergence:                     Information on the convergence history of the L2 residual can be obtained from the list file using the utility RESPLT.
• Comparisons of the Results:      The distributions of pressure, density, and Mach number along the shock tube at the final time are compared 
                                               to the theoretical results and plotted.
                                               The comparisons show very good agreement with minimal overshoot. 
• File formats:                          *.cfl, *.f, *.x.fmt, *.cgd, *.q.dat, *.cfl, *.jou, *.lis, *.gen, *.d, *.dth 
• URL:                                  http://www.grc.nasa.gov/Doc/projects.htm

• NASA Resource for Tools:       http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/wind/valid/stube/stube01/stube01.html

• Plot3D simple work:                 http://www.asm-usa.com/post/doc/index.html

• Plot3D version 4.0 manual:       http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/th/balsac/pltm.0.html

• Another Manual:                       http://www.cc.gatech.edu/scivis/iris/doc/ug/contents.htm

• Read ME file:                           http://140.115.123.30/RESEARCH/SOFT/PLOT3D/readme.htm

• Software Fixed and Update:     http://www.nttc.edu/cosmic/pub/plot3d.patch.shtml

• Tools manual Descriptions:       http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/atrs.arc.nasa.gov/950088_sorenson/950088_sorenson.pdf

• Tips of Software:                      http://www.nas.nasa.gov/FAST/RND-93-010.walatka-clucas/htmldocs/chp3.tips.html

• File Format Information:           http://www.nas.nasa.gov/FAST/RND-93-010.walatka-clucas/htmldocs/chp_21.formats.html

• Software Information:               http://www.nttc.edu/cosmic/abstracts/cos-10037.html