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Paraqus : Exporting Finite Element simulation results from Abaqus to VTK

Furlan, Tim ; Stollberg, Jonathan and Menzel, Andreas LU (2025) In The Journal of Open Source Software 10(106).
Abstract
The finite element (FE) method is one of the approaches available for solving different types of partial differential equations in the various fields of physics, such as solid mechanics, heat transfer, and electromagnetics. Visualization and manipulation of results play a crucial role in the interpretation and analysis of simulation results, especially when complex and advanced problems are considered. Paraqus is a Python package that exports simulation results from the commercial FE software Abaqus to the open VTK file format, allowing researchers to use tried and tested pipelines for the visualization, and to exchange results in a format that is independent of the software they were created with. Paraqus is modular in structure,... (More)
The finite element (FE) method is one of the approaches available for solving different types of partial differential equations in the various fields of physics, such as solid mechanics, heat transfer, and electromagnetics. Visualization and manipulation of results play a crucial role in the interpretation and analysis of simulation results, especially when complex and advanced problems are considered. Paraqus is a Python package that exports simulation results from the commercial FE software Abaqus to the open VTK file format, allowing researchers to use tried and tested pipelines for the visualization, and to exchange results in a format that is independent of the software they were created with. Paraqus is modular in structure, therefore the VTK exporting capability can be used independently of Abaqus, and exporters for other FE software can be added as well. Since VTK is not limited to FE results, the package could be used to export results from other simulation methods, such as CFD simulations, by implementing appropriate exporters. The Paraqus documentation is available at https://paraqus.readthedocs.io. (Less)
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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
The Journal of Open Source Software
volume
10
issue
106
pages
3 pages
DOI
10.21105/joss.05729
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
a97ee418-934c-4610-8815-4090ea113390
alternative location
https://github.com/InstituteOfMechanics/Paraqus/
date added to LUP
2026-01-20 13:55:31
date last changed
2026-01-29 11:51:36
@article{a97ee418-934c-4610-8815-4090ea113390,
  abstract     = {{The finite element (FE) method is one of the approaches available for solving different types of partial differential equations in the various fields of physics, such as solid mechanics, heat transfer, and electromagnetics. Visualization and manipulation of results play a crucial role in the interpretation and analysis of simulation results, especially when complex and advanced problems are considered. Paraqus is a Python package that exports simulation results from the commercial FE software Abaqus to the open VTK file format, allowing researchers to use tried and tested pipelines for the visualization, and to exchange results in a format that is independent of the software they were created with. Paraqus is modular in structure, therefore the VTK exporting capability can be used independently of Abaqus, and exporters for other FE software can be added as well. Since VTK is not limited to FE results, the package could be used to export results from other simulation methods, such as CFD simulations, by implementing appropriate exporters. The Paraqus documentation is available at https://paraqus.readthedocs.io.}},
  author       = {{Furlan, Tim and Stollberg, Jonathan and Menzel, Andreas}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{106}},
  series       = {{The Journal of Open Source Software}},
  title        = {{Paraqus : Exporting Finite Element simulation results from Abaqus to VTK}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.21105/joss.05729}},
  doi          = {{10.21105/joss.05729}},
  volume       = {{10}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}