[Paraview] ParaView 3.8.1 hangs on select points/cells for plugin-generated multiblock data set

[Karl König]

Hi,

Actually, the very same behavior can be observed with a completely
different plugin, developed independently - Takuya Oshima's Parallelized
Native OpenFOAM Reader Plugin: No point/cell selection problems when the
plugin is compiled for 32-bit or 64-bit Linux against the official PV
Development release 3.8.1, but ParaView 3.8.1 hangs (both 32-bit and
64-bit) if the plugin is compiled with Visual Studio 2008 SP1 against
the official PV Development Installation for Windows.

Recipe:
* Get the plugin source
  (see
http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/Contrib_Parallelized_Native_OpenFOAM_Reader_for_ParaView)
  svn co
https://of-interfaces.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/of-interfaces/trunk/vtkPOFFReader
* CMake, then compile the plugin with Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (32-bit or
64-bit)
* Start ParaView 3.8.1 (Win32 or Win64)
  (downloaded from
http://www.paraview.org/files/v3.8/ParaView-3.8.1-Win*-x86.exe)
* Tools - Manage Plugins - Load New... -
"Release/POFFDevReaderPanelPlugin.dll" +
"Release/POFFDevReaderPlugin.dll" - Close

Download a sample OpenFOAM data set, e.g.
http://openfoamwiki.net/images/e/e1/BcOscilating.tar.gz. Untar.

* File - Open - "bcOscilating/system/controlDict.foam" - Ok
* Ignore the warning about missing time dependent data. Irrelevant here.
* Change File Name to "bcOscilating\system\fvSchemes" - Apply
* (optional:) Color by cell data array named "p".
* (optional:) Representation "Surface with Edges"
* Lasso select with either SelectPoints or SelectCells
=> PV 3.8.1 hangs
   (no such problem with SelectPointsThrough or SelectCellsThrough,
    though, as with the minimal reader posted previously)

Does anyone else notice such strange behavior with his multiblock reader
plugins on Windows?

Thanks in advance for any feedback,
Karl



Karl König wrote, On 24.11.2010 09:04:
> Hi all,
> 
> I've a multiblock reader plugin which behaves nicely in Unix
> environments (Linux and Solaris, 32 and 64bit), but seems to cause
> problems under Windows (XP and 7, 32 and 64bit, compiled with Visual
> Studio 2008 SP1 against official PV Development release):
> Importing the data, viewing the data and exporting the data to different
> file formats (e.g. as *.vtm) and importing that data again into ParaView
> works without any problem, but whenever I use SelectCells or
> SelectPoints from the selection toolbar and lasso select an area from an
> object imported by this reader, ParaView hangs - under Windows, not in a
> Unix environment. If, however, one applies a MergeBlocks filter first
> and then lasso selects an area, there is no problem.
> 
> I boiled down the reader to a minimal test case, it's more or less a
> mere source now (but still implemented as a reader) and am attaching the
> source code. Once compiled, it will integrate into paraview and offer to
> open any file named *.mini (there is one in subdirectory sample-input).
> The content of the file is completely ignored, instead a multiblock
> containing one unstructured grid with exactly one cube is created. This
> is enough to trigger the problem.
> 
> I'd like to know whether this is a problem with the ParaView Windows
> builds or whether I am misconstructing a multiblock data set which
> somehow confuses only Windows builds. I tend to believe the latter (as a
> data object generator source using the program "MB { UG1 }" does not
> cause ParaView to hang when trying to select something), but have no
> idea what I might be doing wrong.
> 
> Thanks a lot for any feedback
> Karl