GEOS-DEV / GEOS-DEV/GEOS

output connectivity in `hdf5` files - add `vtkHDF` support ?

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type: feature
Dominant language
C++
Stars
287
Forks
109
Avg merge
4d 41m
Merged PRs (30d)
5

Description

What is the requested feature?

.hdf5 fields are currently written as a 1d stream of values.

E.g. for an acoustic solver the nodal pressure field is three-dimensional, we thus loose the connectivity in the process.
It is trivial to reconstruct a Q1 mesh with a single solver, but visualizing a solution on arbitrary unstructured mesh points requires faces connectivity.

As discussed on slack, adding a VTKHDF extension to fileIO/vtk is probably the best approach.

Describe the solution you'd like

Having the output field connectivity stored somewhere would allow mesh reconstruction from post-treated data.
This could be an optional flag.

Related: https://github.com/GEOS-DEV/GEOS/issues/2592.

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First steps

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  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by inspecting the existing output code under fileIO/vtk and how .hdf5 fields are written. Compare that path with the linked VTKHDF format and related issue #2592; done means an optional output path preserves mesh connectivity so post-treated data can reconstruct arbitrary unstructured meshes.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
data
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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