pyvista.read

read(

filename: PathStrSeq,

force_ext: str | None = None,

file_format: str | None = None,

progress_bar: bool = False,

) → DataObject

Read any file type supported by vtk or meshio.

Automatically determines the correct reader to use then wraps the corresponding mesh as a pyvista object. Attempts native vtk readers first then tries to use meshio. Pickled meshes ('.pkl' or '.pickle') are also supported.

See pyvista.get_reader() for list of vtk formats supported.

Note

See nschloe/meshio for formats supported by meshio. Be sure to install meshio with pip install meshio if you wish to use it.

Added in version 0.45: Support reading pickled meshes.

Warning

The pickle module is not secure. Only read pickled mesh files ('.pkl' or '.pickle') you trust. See pickle for details.

Parameters:

filenamestr, Path, Sequence[str | Path]

The string path to the file to read. If a list of files is given, a pyvista.MultiBlock dataset is returned with each file being a separate block in the dataset.

force_extstr, optional

If specified, the reader will be chosen by an extension which is different to its actual extension. For example, '.vts', '.vtu'.

file_formatstr, optional

Format of file to read with meshio.

progress_barbool, default: False

Optionally show a progress bar. Ignored when using meshio.

Returns:

pyvista.DataSet

Wrapped PyVista dataset.

See also

pyvista.DataObject.save

Save a mesh to file.

Examples

Load an example mesh.

>>> import pyvista as pv
>>> from pyvista import examples
>>> mesh = pv.read(examples.antfile)
>>> mesh.plot(cpos='xz')

Static Scene

Interactive Scene

Load a vtk file.

>>> mesh = pv.read('my_mesh.vtk')

Load a meshio file.

>>> mesh = pv.read('mesh.obj')

Load a pickled mesh file.

>>> mesh = pv.read('mesh.pkl')