SOLPP(1) General Commands Manual SOLPP(1)

solpp — post-process Solstice simulation results into VTK and OBJ files

solpp geom simul

solpp takes two input files: geom, the geometry of a solar plant exported by solstice(1) when invoked with the -g option, and simul, the results of a solstice(1) simulation. For each simulated sun direction, solpp writes up to three output files.

The first output file is a VTK file that maps the simulation results to the meshes of the primary geometries, i.e. the reflectors. The mapped results include, for instance, the cosine factor of each reflector or the amount of flux that reaches a receiver from them.

The second output file is another VTK file that stores the geometry of the receivers together with their simulation results, such as their incoming flux or their efficiency.

The optional third output file is an OBJ file that stores the meshes of the miscellaneous geometries, i.e. the geometries that are neither receivers nor primary geometries (if any).

The resulting files can be visualised and analysed in a data visualisation tool such as ParaView.

Where end stands for primaries.vtk, receivers.vtk, or miscellaneous.obj for the 1st, 2nd, and optional 3rd output file respectively, the naming scheme for the output files depends on the way the sun direction was provided to solstice(1):

  • using the -D azimuth,elevation flag: the output file is named after the following pattern: 
    printf "%g-%g-%s" azimuth elevation end
  • using the -L latitude,longitude and -T time flags: the output file is named after the following pattern: 
    printf "%g-%g-%s-%s" latitude longitude time end

The solpp utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

Invoke solstice(1) to simulate two sun directions on the solar plant described in input.yaml. Then invoke it again to export the geometry of the solar plant for the same sun directions. Finally, post-process both outputs with solpp:

solstice -D45,70 -D50,75 -R rcvs.yaml -o simul input.yaml
solstice -D45,70 -D50,75 -g format=obj -o geom input.yaml
solpp geom simul

Invoke solstice(1) to simulate a sun direction defined by a location and a time on the solar plant described in input.yaml. Then invoke it again to export the geometry of the solar plant for the same sun direction. Finally, post-process both outputs with solpp:

solstice -L3,40 -T"2026-08-15T17:20:00" -R rcvs.yaml -o simul input.yaml
solstice -L3,40 -T"2026-08-15T17:20:00" -g format=obj -o geom input.yaml
solpp geom simul

solmaps(1), solpaths(1), solppraw(1), solstice(1), solstice-output(5), solstice-receiver(5)

solpp was initially developed with funding from the (Laboratory of Excellence), in collaboration with the PROMES Laboratory of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). Starting in 2026, a new development effort funded by Ademe is ongoing.

solpp was written and is maintained by |Méso|Star> <contact@meso-star.com>.

August 17, 2026 UNIX