[Paraview] XDMF or VTK XML for multi-domain time-dependent data

[Tomasz Koziara]

Hi

I work on a multi-body contact/impact simulation code. The code works with many (tens of thousands) separate unstructured meshed, each comprising from hundreds to thousands of nodes. Meshes can also fracture and fragment during simulation - hence their topology can change (although this is not a very frequent event). At the moment I am using a custom output format / viewer, but I would like to stop maintaining it and switch to Paraview. I would need the following functionality:

1. Define topology once and and only update node positions, vector fields, etc. for consecutive time steps
2. Be able to modify topology (delete some meshes, introduce new meshes) at given time step, but then again only give node positions, etc. for subsequent time steps
3. Be able to define a vector field on scattered points together with the multi-mesh domain for every time step

I started reading about formats accepted by Paraview and it seems like XDMF or VTK XML might do it, although the VTK formats, at first glance, seem to be not designed for working with time dependent data.

Would you be able to advice on a best course of action in order to get the 1-2-3 functionality in Paraview readable input files?

Best regards,
Tomasz Koziara