[Paraview] Automatic connect to Catalyst

[Utkarsh Ayachit]

Arno,

> I tried to generate a PV Python script using the trace option, but it did
> not show me any output related to connecting to the Catalyst simulation. Is
> it at all possible to do this via a Python script?

Not currently, I am afraid. The connect-to-live functionality is
currently not exposed to Python and hence not scriptable or accessible
via Python API alone.

> I also have not found any command line options that would allow me to
> connect to a certain Catalyst port, did I miss something here?

Correct, they don't exist either. Feel free to add a feature request
for the case or put together a merge-request to add support for this.

> And finally if none of the above works, would a custom plug-in that is auto
> loaded allow me to perform this small piece of magic? Or any other ways of
> doing this?

Yes, that may be possible. Follow the code path starting with
pqCatalystConnectReaction::connect()[1]. That will tell you how
ParaView connects to insitu. You can mimic parts of that in your
plugin's auto-start method.

Utkarsh

[1] https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview/blob/master/Qt/ApplicationComponents/pqCatalystConnectReaction.cxx#L61-72