DBAnnotateUcdmesh could be much simpler

This function tries to embue a zonelist with shapetype information when it is not present. The only case thats ambiguous is a zonelist for which topological dimension is not specified and contains only shapes of size 4. It could be a mesh of tets or a mesh of quads. But, any mesh with a mix of shape sizes, we can make a good guess. If the mix is all shape sizes of 3 and 4, 3's can only be 2D triangles and so more than likely the 4s are quads. If the mix is sizes of 4 and 5, 6 and/or 8, those shapes can only be 3D shapes and so more than likely the 4s are tets. The logic in silo doesn't exploit this kind of information and expects there to be a topological dimension information to inform it how to interpret shapes of size 4.

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Ticket number: 2019
Status: New
Project: VisIt
Tracker: Bug
Priority: Normal
Subject: DBAnnotateUcdmesh could be much simpler
Assigned to: -
Category: -
Target version: -
Author: Mark Miller
Start: 10/09/2014
Due date:
% Done: 0%
Estimated time:
Created: 10/09/2014 09:43 pm
Updated:
Likelihood: 3 - Occasional
Severity: 2 - Minor Irritation
Found in version: 4.8
Impact:
Expected Use:
OS: All
Support Group: Any
Description:
This function tries to embue a zonelist with shapetype information when it is not present. The only case thats ambiguous is a zonelist for which topological dimension is not specified and contains only shapes of size 4. It could be a mesh of tets or a mesh of quads. But, any mesh with a mix of shape sizes, we can make a good guess. If the mix is all shape sizes of 3 and 4, 3's can only be 2D triangles and so more than likely the 4s are quads. If the mix is sizes of 4 and 5, 6 and/or 8, those shapes can only be 3D shapes and so more than likely the 4s are tets. The logic in silo doesn't exploit this kind of information and expects there to be a topological dimension information to inform it how to interpret shapes of size 4.

Comments:

Start by locating and reading DBAnnotateUcdmesh and the code that supplies its zonelist and topological-dimension information. Review existing Silo mesh tests or reproduce cases with mixed shape sizes; the change is done when mixed sizes guide interpretation of four-node shapes while an all-four-node zonelist remains dependent on explicit dimension information.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.