CGNS

CFD General Notation System

Filename extension	cgns
Latest release	3.1.3 (August 31, 2011)
Type of format	scientific data format
Website	http://www.cgns.org

CGNS stands for CFD General Notation System. It is a general, portable, and extensible standard for the storage and retrieval of CFD analysis data. It consists of a collection of conventions, and free and open software implementing those conventions. It is self-descriptive, cross-platform also termed platform or machine independent, documented, and administered by an international steering committee. It is also an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) recommended practice. The CGNS project originated in 1994 as a joint effort between Boeing and NASA, and has since grown to include many other contributing organizations worldwide. In 1999, control of CGNS was completely transferred to a public forum known as the CGNS Steering Committee. This Committee is made up of international representatives from government and private industry.

The CGNS system consists of two parts: (1) a standard format (known as Standard Interface Data Structure, or SIDS) for recording the data, and (2) software that reads, writes, and modifies data in that format. The format is a conceptual entity established by the documentation; the software is a physical product supplied to enable developers to access and produce data recorded in that format.

The CGNS system is designed to facilitate the exchange of data between sites and applications, and to help stabilize the archiving of aerodynamic data. The data are stored in a compact, binary format and are accessible through a complete and extensible library of functions. The application programming interface (API) is cross-platform and can be easily implemented in C, C++, Fortran and Fortran 90 applications. A MEX interface mexCGNS also exists for calling the CGNS API in high-level programming languages MATLAB and GNU Octave. Object oriented interface CGNS++ and Python module pyCGNS exist.

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