[petsc-users] best way to output in parallel data from DMDA (levelset) finite difference simulation

[Matteo Semplice]

Dear all,

     it seems it should be a fairly straighforward thing to do but I am 
struggling with the output of my finite difference simulation.

I have tried adapting my XML ascii VTK output routines that work nicely 
for finite volumes (but I have issues at points where 4 CPU subdomains 
touch), with an HDF5 PetscViewer (for which I cannot get a correct xdmf 
file) and few other random attempts, but neither got me a fully 
satisfactory result. Rather than correcting my attempts, I am ready to 
start afresh, also since this project will end up with much larger 
meshes than those I am used to.

In your experience, what is the best way to output data

- associated to a DMDA with more than one scalar fields, so that each 
variable can be visualized independently (dof 0 to scalar field "A", dof 
1 to field "B", etc)

- compatible with paraview (or visit or any other free tool on linux, if 
it need be)

- with decent scaling, i.e. Vec data should be written directly by each CPU

- binary format so that files are not incredibly huge is a plus

- (bonus point) in the (not so) long run this will become a method for 
an arbitrary  subdomain of the Cartesian grid defined by a level-set 
function, so a way to distinguish the points of the DMDA that are 
outside the physical domain would be a bonus (for example I could easily 
fill the Vec with NaNs for those points as long as the 
output/visualization can handle this).

Thanks in advance!

Best

     Matteo