Instituto Superior Técnico Vector Postprocessor Formats Manuals Examples Download

Instituto Superior Técnico

IST Vector Postprocessor

A desktop tool that turns finite-element solver output into figures, animations, and reproducible scenes — resolution-independent throughout.

Download for Windows Microsoft Windows installer  ·  SHA-256 checksum
IST Vector Postprocessor showing a necked tension specimen with the effective plastic strain field on a section cut, with a step navigator and a value legend.
A 50-step finite-strain tension run: necking, recovered effective plastic strain on the section cut, live legend, one scene → screen, PDF, and MP4.

What it does

Recovery upstream of everything

Colour, iso-surface, threshold, and deformation all read the same active filtered field. Choose a stress-recovery filter once; every representation follows.

One scene, four outputs

Screen, PDF, MP4, and a saved-view project consume the same scene object. What you see is what exports — no surprises.

Resolution-independent

PDFs are vector-true Gouraud surfaces, not rasterised screenshots. MP4s capture the viewport's physical pixel grid. HiDPI is honoured end to end.

Built for real meshes

Hundreds of thousands of nodes and elements, transient multi-step runs, nodal and element fields, tensors, symmetry, sections, probes, and iso-surfaces.

IST Vector Postprocessor showing a deformed 3D lattice beam from a finite-element damage run, one region rendered with a colour field and the rest in plain grey, with the undeformed wireframe overlay and a value legend.
FE damage on a 3D lattice beam — 133,308 nodes, 209,088 elements — field-coloured and plain-grey representations in one scene, with the undeformed wireframe as reference.

Example exports

Open each PDF and zoom in. These are exported straight from IST Vector as vector-true Gouraud surfaces, not rasterised screenshots — the mesh, contours, and legend stay perfectly crisp at any magnification.
Example 13.9 MB Example 23.0 MB Example 33.3 MB Example 43.2 MB Example 53.6 MB Example 61.1 MB Example 76.7 MB Example 81.0 MB Example 9670 KB Example 10490 KB Example 111.6 MB Example 12250 KB Example 136.7 MB Example 14880 KB Example 15810 KB Example 161.1 MB Example 17460 KB Example 18180 KB Example 19680 KB Example 207.2 MB

Reads what your solver writes

FormatWhat it carries
.caseEnSight Gold — topology, parts, transient steps; scalar / vector / tensor fields. ASCII & binary, multi-part, wildcard step files.
.vtuVTK XML UnstructuredGrid — topology plus per-point / per-cell fields. Inline ASCII, base64, zlib-compressed payloads.
.vtpVTK XML PolyData — verts, lines, polys, and strips.
.vtkVTK legacy, ASCII or binary — Unstructured / PolyData / Structured / Rectilinear grids.
.pvdParaView collection — time-series index of .vtu / .vtp files.
.stlStereolithography reference geometry.
.sppIST Vector project — the full scene state in one shareable file. This is the file you send a colleague.

Exports

PDF — vector-true Gouraud surfaces MP4 — viewport-resolution animation Screen — interactive OpenGL viewport Project — lossless saved-view .spp

Manuals

DocumentDownload
Reference Manual
The pipeline, the stress-recovery mathematics, the representation cards, the camera, and the element catalogue.		 PDF  ·  1.0 MB
Inputs & Outputs
Every supported file format in depth, field handling, and the shareable project (.spp) format.		 PDF  ·  310 KB
Architecture & Developer Guide
How IST Vector is built — modules, the rendering path, and the scene model. For developers.		 PDF  ·  380 KB

Get IST Vector Postprocessor

Download the Microsoft Windows installer and open your first .case, .vtu, or .vtk file. Verify the download against its SHA-256 checksum.

Download for Windows Windows installer  ·  SHA-256