A CSV file can be used to initialize fields that have continuous interpolation (such as temperature or thickness) to match user-defined values or experimental data. CSV files can be created by editing files from a previous Polyflow calculation, a spreadsheet program (such as Excel), or by using a text editor. See Using Mesh-to-Mesh Interpolation for details on generating a template CSV file.

After you have a CSV file you can follow the procedure in Using Mesh-to-Mesh Interpolation to begin a calculation from the CSV file.

The CSV file must define coordinates for one or more points, which may or may not correspond to known mesh nodes. Each point is identified by a number, which can then be used to define values for other fields. The following is an example that demonstrates the format of a CSV file that can be used by Polyflow.

COORDINATES
1; .3078385E+01; .0000000E+00; .1466668E+02;
2; .3078372E+01; .0000000E+00; .1500000E+02;
3; .3068895E+01; .2415273E+00; .1466668E+02;
4; .3068882E+01; .2415263E+00; .1500000E+02;
5; .3040485E+01; .4815655E+00; .1466668E+02;
6; .3040472E+01; .4815635E+00; .1500000E+02;
7; .2993329E+01; .7186346E+00; .1466668E+02;
8; .2993316E+01; .7186317E+00; .1500000E+02;
9; .2927718E+01; .9512732E+00; .1466668E+02;
10; .2927706E+01; .9512693E+00; .1500000E+02;

TEMPERATURE
1; 200.0;
2; 201.0;
3; 202.0;
4; 203.0;
5; 204.0;
6; 205.0;
7; 206.0;
8; 207.0;
9; 208.0;
10; 209.0;

A comma or semi-colon must be used to separate the data (using a semi-colon is recommended, in order to avoid confusion). You may specify more than one field in a CSV file; the field names must match known names in Polyflow. The following are some typical field names: VELOCITIES, TEMPERATURE, PRESSURE, THICKNESS.

It is not necessary to specify field values for all of the defined points, but you must define at least one per field. Note that if a single point is provided for the field, then all nodal values will be initialized to this value; if more than one value is provided, data will be interpolated between these values.