BUG: foamToEnsight replaces ":" with "_" for Lagrangian file names but retains ":" in .case file

foamToEnsight replaces ":" with "_" when writing out Lagrangian file names. However, the .case file retains the ":" when listing the filenames for ensight to read. This results in a file read error when reading into EnSight.

simple_spray_steady_good.case

## Reattaching the author to the issue ticket: @graups ##

assigned to @mark

Hi Justin, These are actually the dimensioned internal fields coming from the lagrangian. Apart from what I just noted as issue #903 (closed), it seems to work for me. The case file does have : both in the variable and file names. These also show up in this form on the disk (attached my case file and ls of the directories). I'm not sure what is going on in your case.

Might need to follow up myself.

simplifiedSiwek.case ls-EnSight.txt

I apologize, I should have investigated this a bit more intelligently before submitting the bug report. My workflow generally follows running OpenFOAM on a linux HPC and transferring the results locally to my Windows box for post-processing. It appears filezilla was trying to be "helpful" by replacing ":", "<", and ">" in the file names with underscores (since Windows doesn't allow certain characters in filenames). This caused the disconnect between the .case file and the file names on my Windows box. Manually changing the unfriendly characters in the .case file to underscores did allow me to load everything successfully as you noted.

So this is actually a limitation rather than a bug. It would still be nice if the output could somehow be made more universal to support workflows that involve post-processing on Windows.

By Justin Graupman on 2018-06-25T14:06:07 (imported from GitLab project)

## Reattaching the author to the issue ticket: @graups ##

No worries, it did sound a bit like a window-ish thing. Might be able to put it on (yet another) switch to stomp out shell meta-characters from ensight variable and file names. Sounds a bit annoying (dealing with potential name collisions), but could be something to follow up on for 1812.

Thanks for your comments. I agree, following up on this for 1812 is probably the best way to go. I've worked around this for now by launching EnSight in its client-server mode and loading the data directly from the linux box. This works.

Internally however, it looks like EnSight does away with the characters anyway. The variable list in EnSight shows the cloud variables with underscores instead of colons. It appears to do this for both client-server mode as well as when directly launching from the linux box.

By Justin Graupman on 2018-06-25T21:06:16 (imported from GitLab project)

changed the description

mentioned in commit 119796b6

mentioned in issue #1675

Hi @graups - if you have a chance to check this (see commit about a month ago). Even if you don't use it often, would be nice to know that it can be closed.

/mark

Hi @mark, this will be easiest for me to test after the release of v2006 as I don't have a functioning dev build right now. Feel free to close for now and I can open a new one if the issue re-appears.

OK - happy to go with that (you can also just reopen this issue)

closed