# Exporting data

To export particles, their properties, and other data to a file (or a series of files), select File Export File from the menu. After choosing an output filename and format, the export settings dialog lets you specify the animation frames and the particle properties to be exported (depending on the selected file format).

If you choose an output filename ending with `.gz`, the file will automatically be compressed by OVITO.

Note that OVITO always exports the results of the modification pipeline. That means, if you have deleted some particles for instance, OVITO will export only the remaining particles to the output file.

OVITO provides various analysis functions that can compute scalar quantities like the surface area of a solid, the density of defects in a crystal, or the number of atoms in a system forming a particluar lattice structure. To export such global quantities, pick the Calculation Results Text File format. OVITO will write a data table with the computed quantities that you selected for export to a simple text file. The text file can then be used for plotting the data with an external tool.

## Supported output formats

File format | Description
--- | ---
LAMMPS dump | Text-based file format produced and read by the LAMMPS molecular dynamics code.
LAMMPS data | File format read by the LAMMPS molecular dynamics code.
XYZ | A simple column-based text format, which is documented here and here.
POSCAR | File format used by the ab initio simulation package VASP.
IMD | File format used by the molecular dynamics code IMD.
FHI-aims | File format used by the ab initio simulation package FHI-aims.
Crystal Analysis (CA) | A text-based file format used by the Crystal Analysis Tool, which can store dislocation line networks extracted by the Dislocation Analysis modifier. The format is documented here.
Calculation Results File | A simple tabular text file with scalar quantities computed by OVITO's analysis modifiers.
POV-Ray scene | Exports the entire scene to a file than can be rendered with POV-Ray (Persistence of Vision Raytracer).