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## Saving the visualization window

VisIt allows you to save the contents of any open visualization window to a variety of file formats. You can save visualizations as images so they can be imported into presentations. Alternatively, you can save the geometry of the plots in the visualization window so it can be imported into other computer modeling and visualization programs.

VisIt currently supports the image files formats: BMP, JPEG, PNG, PPM, Raster Postscript, RGB, and TIFF.

VisIt currently supports the geometry file formats: Curve, Alias WaveFront Obj, STL, ULTRA, and VTK. The Curve and ULTRA file formats are specially designed to store the data created from curve plots and can be used with other Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory visualization software. The Alias Wavefront Obj file format is supported so visualizations produced with VisIt can be imported into rendering programs such as Maya. VisIt can save visualizations into STL files, which are used with stereolithographic printers to fabricate three-dimensional parts. Finally, VisIt can save visualizations into VTK (Visualization Toolkit) format for reading back into VisIt and other VTK-based applications at a later date.

When saving the geometry of plots in the visualization window into any of the afore-mentioned formats, you are performing a type of database export operation. However, saving geometry in this manner differs from exporting databases using the Export Database Window. Only the external faces of the plots are saved out when saving plot geometry whereas during a database export, 3D cells are preserved in the final exported database. The topic of exporting databases is covered later in this chapter.