[MOAB-dev] Using Mesquite with MOAB

[Tim Tautges]

Jason Kraftcheck wrote:
> Roman Putanowicz wrote:

> 
> Those are mostly the default options.  I think it would be the same to do:
>   --prefix=/usr/local/install --enable-shared
> 
>> and Mesquite-2.99 with options:
>>  --prefix=/usr/local/install/' '--enable-imesh'"
>>
>> Then I am lost. I do not see the way to transer MBInterface* pointer
>> to iMesh_Instance.
>>
>> If I do just bold cast like (which I know fill fail on runtime :)
>>
>> MBCore mesh;
>> ....
>> iMesh_Instance mp = (iMesh_Instance)&mesh;
>>
> 
> This definitely will not work.  There is no method to convert between an
> MBInterface* and an iMesh_Instance because, for conformance with the iMesh
> API specification, our implementation of the iMesh interface must impose
> additional constraints on the state of the MOAB data model that could be
> undercut by accessing the underlying MBInterface instance directly.  The two
> options at present are to either a) always work through the iMesh API rather
> than MBInterface or b) provide an implementation of the Mesquite::Mesh
> interface that communicates with MOAB through the MBInterface API rather
> than the iMesh one.  The latter is something that I have been considering
> including in Mesquite for some time, but have never had time to do.
> 
> 

I think we really need to be able to fire up an iMesh instance from an existing MBInterface*, for cases where the iMesh 
API is more convenient; I just ran across such a case last week, where I needed connectivities as an array with offsets. 
  In what way does iMesh constrain the MOAB data model, or is it more of an implementation issue that we could correct?

Having to construct a MOAB-specific API for Mesquite just because the application isn't completely iMesh-based blows a 
big part of our interoperability argument in ITAPS.

- tim

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              Tim Tautges            Argonne National Laboratory
          (tautges at mcs.anl.gov)      (telecommuting from UW-Madison)
          phone: (608) 263-8485      1500 Engineering Dr.
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