tecio.cli.tecdump#

Dump the full contents of a Tecplot data file to standard output.

Inspecting the contents of a binary Tecplot file (variable names, zone metadata, auxiliary data, and raw nodal or element values) ordinarily requires either opening the file in Tecplot itself or writing a dedicated script against the TecIO API. For a quick sanity check during a simulation or post-processing workflow, tecdump serializes every record in the file to plain text, providing a complete and human-readable representation of the file contents directly in the terminal. The output is structured hierarchically: file header and auxiliary data first, followed by per-zone headers and, optionally, the underlying variable and connectivity arrays.

By default all zones and variables are printed. However, the scope can be narrowed to a single zone or variable using the -zone and -variable flags, or the variable arrays can be suppressed entirely to focus on structural metadata.

Usage:

tecdump [-h] [--ignore-zones] [--ignore-vars] [-zone INDEX] [-variable INDEX]
        [-maxvals INT] PATH

Positional Arguments:

PATH: Path to the Tecplot binary file (.plt or .szplt) to inspect.

Options:

--ignore-zones: Print only the file-level header and auxiliary data, then exit. Zone records and variable arrays are suppressed entirely. Useful for confirming file-level metadata such as solver, strand IDs, or global auxiliary entries without the overhead of parsing zone data.
--ignore-vars: Print the file header and all zone headers, then exit. Variable arrays and connectivity tables are suppressed. Use this to survey zone names, types, and dimensions across a large file without printing any data.
-zone INDEX: Restrict output to the zone at the given one-based index. All other zones are skipped. If omitted, every zone is printed.
-variable INDEX: Restrict variable array output to the variable at the given one-based index. All other variable arrays are skipped. If omitted, every variable is printed.
-maxvals INT: Maximum number of values to print from any variable or connectivity array before truncating with a summary line. Defaults to a small number suitable for a quick preview; set to a large value (e.g. 1000000) to print an array in full.

Returns:

Output is written to standard output. Exit code is 0 on success and non-zero if the file cannot be read or an invalid index is supplied.

Examples

Print the complete contents of a file, truncating long arrays at the default limit:

$ tecdump flow.plt

Print only file and zone headers with no variable data:

$ tecdump --ignore-vars flow.szplt

Inspect a single zone/variable combination in full:

$ tecdump -zone 1 -variable 3 -maxvals 1000000 flow.plt