[petsc-dev] Natural numbering for unstructured meshes

[Andrés Alessandro León Baldelli]

Hi all, 
I am working with Blaise Bourdin on implementing a concept of “natural numbering” for unstructured meshes using DMplex.
Such natural numbering can be, e.g., that of the mesh prior to parallel distribution. 
I have a working example in which I compute a field on the distributed DM and I scatter it back to the serial DM on rank0 but I would like to create a more general interface. To this regard I ask your advice:
1) Is it reasonable to add an SF within the DM typedef for this "natural to global” scatter?
2) Considering that such [GlobalToNatural]SF is related to the parallel distribution of the DM, should it computed during DMDistribute?  
3) if the answer to 2) is negative, should the SF created by the DMDistribute be added to the DM, so that a separate DMCreateGlobalToNaturalSF function can be implemented?

Adding a NaturalToGlobalSF in the DM avoids to recompute it every time it is needed and and allows for a DMGlobaltoNatural interface for Plex, similar to that provided for DMDA.  

Thank you for your advice, 

Andrés A. León Baldelli


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