To: hdfnews@ncsa.uiuc.edu From: Mike Folk Subject: HDF5 Mesh API prototype Cc: Darin McKinnis , Mike Krogh , Bruce Nay NCSA and CEI Release HDF5 Mesh API prototype -------------------------------------------- Over the past several years, many HDF5 users have requested a standard higher-level API for storing and retrieving structured and unstructured "mesh" data typical of applications such as computational fluid dynamics, finite element analysis, and visualization. In response, the NCSA HDF group has been working with CEI and others to figure out what such an API should look like, along with the HDF5 data structures and file organization that could support such an API. Together we have defined, and CEI has implemented, a new prototype HDF5 Mesh API and format. The API is based on CEI's API for reading and writing mesh data for its EnSight visualization software, and the format uses HDF5 groups and datasets for organize the data within HDF5 files. This is just a prototype, but we hope that it will eventually evolve into a standard that covers the needs of a large percentage of scientific users. Documentation and code ---------------------- The documentation is still pretty sketchy, but you can get a pretty good idea of what we're proposing from the package of materials that CEI has put on their web site at this location: ftp://ftp.ensight.com/pub/HDF_RW/hdf_rw.tgz The gzipped, tar file contains the latest source code, documentation, example data, and example programs using the API. Join a discussion ----------------- We are now eager to get more people involved. We need to hear from all interested parties about what's right, what's wrong, what's missing, etc., with the new API and format. We have established an email list hdf5mesh@ncsa.uiuc.edu. You can subscribe by sending mail to the majordomo server, majordomo@ncsa.uiuc.edu, and putting this command in the body of the mail message (not on the "Subject:" header component): subscribe hdf5mesh [optional address] Unless you include the optional "address", Majordomo will use the e-mail address in the mail message header ("Reply-to:", if any, otherwise "From:") to send mail to the user. If you use it, let us know -------------------------- It is important at this stage to get information on how people end up using the HDF5 mesh API. We can use this information to help others, and also to improve both the API and organization. So let us know what you're up to!