VMTKMESHWRITER2(1)

✨ VMTKMESHWRITER2 ✨

okay so bestie, welcome to vmtkmeshwriter2, a User Command and a vmtk script, and honestly? she's here to take your mesh and put it on disk. that's the whole job. slay 💅 it's the automatic-piping, option-parsing sibling of vmtkmeshwriter, and we're gonna go through it together, no cap.

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so like, this is the auto-piping, option-parsing wrapper around vmtkmeshwriter. and what does vmtkmeshwriter do? write a mesh to disk. iconic. that's it. that's the vibe. 👑

everything below is split into the stuff you feed in and the stuff it hands back to you. she's very organized, we love her for it. 🎀

🌸 Input arguments

• -id Id — str, 1; default=0. this is the script id, aka her little name tag so you know which script instance is talking. 🏷️
• -handle Self — self, 1. a handle to self. yes she's holding her own hand. boundaries? never heard of her. 🫶
• -disabled Disabled — bool, 1; default=0. turn this on and she just… doesn't run, and doesn't pipe either. like when you mute the group chat but stay in it. 😭
• -i Mesh — vtkUnstructuredGrid, 1. THE input mesh. the main character. the reason we're all here. 👑
• -ifile MeshInputFileName — str, 1. the filename for the default Mesh reader. if you don't hand her a mesh object, she'll read one from here. 📂
• -f Format — str, 1, and she only accepts one of these: 'vtkxml', 'vtk', 'xda', 'fdneut', 'tecplot', 'lifev', 'dolfin', 'fluent', 'pointdata'. that's your file format. quick translation key: xda is the libmesh ASCII format, and fdneut is the FIDAP neutral format. iykyk 💖
• -guessformat GuessFormat — bool, 1; default=1. she looks at your file extension and goes "oh i know what this is" ✨ detective behavior, obsessed.
• -compressed Compressed — bool, 1; default=1. spits out a gz compressed file. dolfin only, bestie, don't try it anywhere else. 🗜️
• -ofile OutputFileName — str, 1. the output file name. where the mesh goes to live her new life. 🏡
• -o Mesh — vtkUnstructuredGrid, 1. the output mesh! the glow-up version, all written out and ready. 🌈
• -entityidsarray CellEntityIdsArrayName — str, 1; default=CellEntityIds. the name of the array where the entity ids are stored. she's specific about her array names, respect it. 📛
• -entityidsoffset CellEntityIdsOffset — int, 1; default=0. adds this number to the entity ids on output. dolfin only, so again, format check before you come for her. ➕
• -ascii Ascii — boolean, 1. write the data as ascii. old school, lowkey charming, we support it. ⌨️

💜 Output arguments

• -id Id — str, 1; default=0. the script id again, handed back to you. same name tag, now on the way out. 🏷️
• -handle Self — self, 1. a handle to self. she returns it. she always returns it. 🫶

heads up babe: -compressed and -entityidsoffset are both marked dolfin only in the docs, so if you're using another format and wondering why they're doing nothing — that's why. 🙈

and that's the whole page!! 💖 vmtkmeshwriter2, version 1.5, dated April 2026 — thank you for coming to my ted talk, go write a mesh, eat something, hydrate, and remember: correct output format is a love language. 🎀✨🦋💅