tecio.cli.tecscale#

Scale and/or offset variable arrays in a Tecplot data file.

CFD solvers and experimental data sources frequently produce output in differing unit systems, and converting between them (e.g.pressure in Pa to kPa, temperature in Kelvin to Celsius or lengths in meters to feet) is a routine step before visualisation or comparison. Performing these transformations would otherwise require loading the file in Tecplot or writing a dedicated script. tecscale applies the linear transformation

\[v' = v \cdot s + b\]

to every value in a selected variable array, where \(s\) is the scale factor and \(b\) is the additive offset. The transformation can be restricted to a single zone and the output format is controlled by the output file extension, allowing unit conversion and format conversion to be performed in a single step.

Usage:

tecscale [-h] -variable INDEX_OR_NAME [-scale FLOAT] [-offset FLOAT] [-zone INDEX]
         [-o PATH] [-f] PATH

Positional Arguments:

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

Options:

-variable INDEX_OR_NAME: Variable to transform, specified as either a one-based integer index or a name string (case-insensitive). Required.
-scale FLOAT: Multiplicative scale factor \(s\). Defaults to 1.0.
-offset FLOAT: Additive offset \(b\) applied after scaling. Defaults to 0.0.
-zone INDEX: One-based zone index to restrict the transformation to. If omitted, all zones are processed.
-o PATH, --output PATH: Output file path. The extension controls the output format: .szplt, .plt, or .dat. Defaults to <stem>_scaled<ext> in the same directory as the input file.
-f, --force: Overwrite the output file if it already exists. Without this flag the command exits with an error rather than silently clobbering an existing file.

Returns:

A new Tecplot file written to the output path with the selected variable transformed in all processed zones. Exit code is 0 on success and non-zero if the input file cannot be read, the variable cannot be resolved, or the output file already exists and --force is not set.

Examples

Convert pressure from kPa to psi by index:

$ tecscale -variable 4 -scale 0.145038 flow.szplt

Same conversion using the variable name:

$ tecscale -variable Pressure -scale 0.145038 flow.szplt

Shift temperature from Kelvin to Celsius in zone 2 only:

$ tecscale -variable Temperature -offset -273.15 -zone 2 flow.szplt

Scale and offset in one step, writing to ASCII DAT:

$ tecscale -variable 3 -scale 0.3048 flow.szplt -o flow_ft.dat

Call directly from a Python session:

import tecio.cli.tecscale.main as tecscale

tecscale(["-variable", "Pressure", "-scale", "1e-3", "flow.szplt"])