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FLSGRF Editor
FLOW-3D v11.1’s FLSGRF Editor utility enables users to manipulate results files, merging files where
simulations are identical in terms of activated physical models, imported geometry and meshing. This
feature requires that the same data catalog be used in each results file and that the timelines do not
overlap. The tool can also extract results of a single time step or from a range of time steps, and save
these to a separate flsgrf file. This can be an efficient choice for archiving/sharing large results files.

In this article we will discuss how to use this utility and provide examples for merging flsgrf files and
extracting data to a new flsgrf file.

Location
The flsgrf editor utility is located in the ‘v11.1’ installation directory under the ‘local’ subdirectory.

The utility consists of two files: grfedit.bat and grfedit.exe.

To run the utility, double-click on the file grfedit.bat. This will open a command prompt to guide the
process of using the utility. The utility can be run from its current location using full paths to the files
to be modified. Or, grfedit.bat and grfedit.exe can be copied directly to the working directory where
the files to be modified are located. For this option, only file names are required.
How to use
To demonstrate this utility, we have results for the example problem, Flow Over a Weir, and a results
file from a restart that we want to merge into a single flsgrf.* using the grfedit tool. We will also show
how to extract the last time step to a new flsgrf file.

Example 1: Merging Data

First, launch the application by double-clicking on the grfedit.bat file. You will initially be prompted to
enter the name of the source file to edit.  The source file is the file from which data is extracted. Its
data is sent to a new results file or appended to an existing file known as the target file. Use the full
path if it is not in the same location as the results file, and type the full results file name
(flsgrf.Flow_Over_A_Weir_Restart).

Next, you will be prompted to type the name of the target file. Again, enter the full path and file name
(flsgrf.Flow_Over_A_Weir) if it is not located in the same directory as the results file.
If a target does not exist, then it will be created. If a target does exist, you will be presented with
options to either overwrite or append the results to the existing file. In this example, we will choose
option “2” in order to append the results of the restart to the original simulation results.
Next, the user will be presented with options for specifying the time range for the history, selected
and restart data to be edited. In other words, the user has the option to not include any of these data
types, or to include a range of time steps. The options are specified by entering an integer between 0
and 3 as described below:

0 – write no history edits

1 – write all of the history edits
2 – specify a range of history edits
3 – specify individual history edits

In this example, we will choose option 1 to write all edits for history, selected and restart data. After
selecting these options, the grfedit window will close and both files will be successfully merged into
the target file (flsgrf.Flow_Over_A_Weir)
Example 2: Extracting the last time output
To extract the data from the last time step to a new file, relaunch the grfedit.bat program, and select
the source file to be flsgrf.Flow_Over_A_Weir, and set the target file to
flsgrf.Flow_Over_A_Weir_NEWFILE. Since the target file did not exist, a new file will be created with
this name.

For the history, restart and selected data edits, select option 3 so that you can specify an individual
time step from the source file to write to the target file, and then choose the last time step for each
data type.  After completing this step for each data type, the file flsgrf.Flow_Over_A_Weir_NEWFILE
will only contain data from the last time step of the source file.
Specific Uses:
If a single results file is desired for post-processing rather than loading multiple simulation
results into a postprocessor, this utility can merge the data to avoid loading and configuring
multiple data sets.
If a final steady state condition is all that is necessary to save from a transient solution, a results
file containing only the steady-state data can be saved thus significantly reduce drive space.
If too many data time outputs were created, then one can choose to reduce specific time
outputs.