Smokeview

free, open-source (public domain) Engineer & Analyze

Free, open-source visualization and animation tool for displaying simulation results from NIST Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) and CFAST models -- renders particle flow, gas temperature contours, smoke density, and flow vectors in 3D animations and 2D slices, enabling fire protection engineers to understand fire and smoke behavior; developed and maintained by NIST.

3.8 /5 composite score

C1 5/5 reflects free, open-source distribution, and C2 3/5 reflects read-only visualization of pre-generated simulation data with no scripting API. C4 5/5 reflects native SMV format and CSV data import from FDS/CFAST, and C5 5/5 reflects deep integration as the canonical visualization tool for FDS and CFAST. Smokeview is essential infrastructure in the FDS/CFAST fire modeling ecosystem.

Solid

Rubric Scorecard

How we grade →

Criterion	Score	Evidence
Value for the price	5/5	free, open-source (public domain), free tier
Agent Friendliness	3/5	CLI, API: none (offline visualization of simulation output) Source →
Ease of adoption	1/5	--
Portability & lock-in	5/5	2 file formats Source →
Interoperability	5/5	2 integrations

Pricing

Modelfree, open-source (public domain)

Free tieryes

Free vieweryes

Trialyes

Visit Smokeview →

How we verified this: we checked Smokeview against its live site and an independent source — pages.nist.gov. Nothing on this page is listed from memory. See how we grade. Verified 2026-07-29.

Evidence

File formats

Format	Direction	Support
SMV	import	full -- Smokeview native format
CSV	import	full -- Results data from FDS/CFAST

Integrations

FDS (Fire Dynamics Simulator) (native) CFAST (zone-model fire simulator) (native)

Sources

API docs Formats

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