Unstructured meshes

[Renato F. Cantao]

Hello Guys (well, eventually girls also...)!

I'm stuck with the new Pooma Field concept. In the old days (Pooma
2.3.0), I've managed to create an UnstructuredMesh class (for finite
elements), based on the guidelines in DiscreteGeometry.URM.h, Field.h,
UniformRectiliearMesh.{h,cpp}, etc.

The distinction bewteen

    . "dimensions" = number of indices needed to address an element in
    the mesh, and

    . "coordinateDimensions" = number of indices needed to address a
    position in the mesh (or, equivalently, the mesh spatial dimension)

made possible the implementation of something like:

template< int Dim, class coordinateSystem_t, class element_t, class T
>
class UnstructuredMesh
{
...
};

with the extra template parameter "element_t" as the finite element
being stored in the mesh.

Due to the distinction above mentioned, I'm able to store the elements
into an Array< 1 >, the coordinates are Vector< Dim > also into an
Array< 1 >, as well as any other FEM pertinent information not related
to Fields. In other word, the dimensionality of  the underlying data
structures does not relate directly to the Field or Mesh spatial
dimension.

I have also an equivalent DiscreteGeometry like:

template< int D, class coordinateSystem_t, class element_t, class T >
class DiscreteGeometry< Vert,
			UnstructuredMesh< D, coordinateSystem_t,
			element_t, T > >
{
...

	// The demanded x() method...
	const PositionsArray_t& x() const {...}
};

and with this (and some other stuff like Views), my finite element
meshes worked fine with Pooma Fields (2.3.0) - at least very basic
things, like using a UserFunction<> in a Field.

*But*, now, with this new abstraction:

       . Centering, Layout and Field work very tied together (at least
       it seems to me, as far as I could dig in the code), and

       . The distinction between "dimensions" and
       "coordinateDimensions" seems to have disapeared...

So the question is: Pooma Field version 2.4.0 seems to be much more
"tied" to Finite Differences concept. There's a way to re-integrate my
UnstructuredMesh into this new Field concept, or it's so far way from
this new architecture that I should simply forget the matter?

Thanks a lot, Cantao!


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