cffview

CFF is an abbreviation for Ansys Common Fluids Format.

A command-line tool for viewing Ansys Fluent .cas.h5 / .msh.h5 / .dat.h5 files without opening Fluent.

Read solver settings, materials, boundary conditions, discretisation schemes, and more directly from the HDF5 file.
Visualise mesh or data with PyVista.

Installation

PyPI

pip install cffview

From source

git clone https://github.com/preamer/cffview.git
cd cffview
pip install .

Usage

[!IMPORTANT] Only tested with Ansys Fluent 25R2!

cffview <file> [options]

Options

Option	Description
`--version`	Print the Fluent version of file
`--extract`	Dump raw Scheme settings to `general.scm` and `boundary.scm`
`--mesh`, `--showmesh`	Visualise the mesh interactively with PyVista
`--data`, `--plotdata`	Plot the data interactively with PyVista (may not work, depending on `vtkFLUENTCFFReader`)
`--solver`	Solver type, time, dimension, precision, turbulence model, energy, radiation, gravity
`--mat`, `--materials`	Material properties
`--bd`, `--boundary`	Boundary condition settings
`--interfaces`	Mesh interfaces settings
`--ne`, `--named-expressions`	Named expressions
`--cff`, `--custom-field-functions`	Custom field functions
`--units [KEYWORD ...]`	Unit table (filtered by one or more keywords; empty means default SI units)
`--solution`	Solution methods and controls
`--rd`, `--report-definitions`	Report definitions
`--plotsets`	Plot sets
`--monitorsets`	Monitor sets
`--residuals`	Residual settings
`--iter`	Iteration / time-step settings
`--surfaces`	Surfaces settings
`--contours`	Graphics contours settings
`--vectors`	Graphics vectors settings
`--xy-plot`	Graphics xy-plot settings
`--save`	Save the output to `file_name.json` (if `file_name` not specified, it is the same as input file)
`--plot [out\|xy\|dat]`	Plot a data file; without `TYPE`, infer from the file extension

Multiple flags can be combined freely. Case settings flags (--solver, --mat, etc.) apply to .cas.h5 files only.

[!TIP] Long options can be abbreviated to any unambiguous prefix. For example, --inter works for --interfaces and --so for --solver. An ambiguous prefix (e.g. --i, which could match --interfaces or --iter) is rejected with an error.

Examples

# Show all settings and save to JSON
cffview case.cas.h5 --save

# Show solver configuration and boundary conditions
cffview case.cas.h5 --solver --bd

# Visualise the mesh
cffview case.cas.h5 --mesh
cffview mesh.msh.h5

# Visualise the data
cffview case.cas.h5 --data

# Check the Fluent version of file
cffview case.cas.h5 --version

# Extract raw Scheme strings for manual inspection
cffview case.cas.h5 --extract

Demo

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/7f97b559-87fa-4822-be9f-4e82b8c5cab6

License

BSD-3-Clause

Release files for cffview 0.5.0

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

Source distribution (sdist)

Source distribution for cffview 0.5.0
File	Size	Uploaded
cffview-0.5.0.tar.gz	26.9 kB	Aug 28, 2026	Details

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for cffview 0.5.0
File	Interpreter	ABI	Platform	Reset
cffview-0.5.0-py3-none-any.whl 27.0 kB Aug 28, 2026	Python 3	none	any	Details

Total release size: 54.0 kB

Release files / cffview-0.5.0.tar.gz

Download URL	cffview-0.5.0.tar.gz
Size	26.9 kB
Tags	Source
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`dd26bcac75b4680c49a98257a1461de559005d25fe05d5ba17be29154a2123fe`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`fbc1d48ff10501bf484f607c2a34f49c321ff39d62839c73f8acb19524f3c4de`
Upload date	Aug 28, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	Yes
Uploaded via	`twine/7.0.0 CPython/3.13.14`

Provenance

Provenance describes where a file came from. On PyPI, provenance is shared via attestations, which provide a verifiable record of the build or publishing details. View details, limitations and caveats.

Identity

Publishing platform: GitHub Actions
Publishing repository: github.com/preamer/cffview
Publishing commit: github.com/preamer/cffview/tree/d6bbfa38e24544ab1a116920f53f156e7bc2dbf4

Workflow

Publishing configuration: github.com/preamer/cffview/blob/d6bbfa38e24544ab1a116920f53f156e7bc2dbf4/.github/workflows/build_wheels.yml
Publishing logs: github.com/preamer/cffview/actions/runs/33196292225/attempts/1

Artifact

Subject: cffview-0.5.0.tar.gz
SHA-256 checksum: dd26bcac75b4680c49a98257a1461de559005d25fe05d5ba17be29154a2123fe Verifying attestations

Release files / cffview-0.5.0-py3-none-any.whl

Download URL	cffview-0.5.0-py3-none-any.whl
Size	27.0 kB
Tags	Python 3
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`23be9bc979b0a1b2ba0a265b005241e0938e4c7cedc20057432f17ac22f2259f`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`bbb1762aa2bfc32f7204c6d717fad2f0deecd65522c7dd236207e2542b7cd242`
Upload date	Aug 28, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	Yes
Uploaded via	`twine/7.0.0 CPython/3.13.14`

Provenance

Identity

Publishing platform: GitHub Actions
Publishing repository: github.com/preamer/cffview
Publishing commit: github.com/preamer/cffview/tree/d6bbfa38e24544ab1a116920f53f156e7bc2dbf4

Workflow

Publishing configuration: github.com/preamer/cffview/blob/d6bbfa38e24544ab1a116920f53f156e7bc2dbf4/.github/workflows/build_wheels.yml
Publishing logs: github.com/preamer/cffview/actions/runs/33196292225/attempts/1

Artifact

Subject: cffview-0.5.0-py3-none-any.whl
SHA-256 checksum: 23be9bc979b0a1b2ba0a265b005241e0938e4c7cedc20057432f17ac22f2259f Verifying attestations