[vtk-developers] vtkCellArray memory layout

[David Lonie]

On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 7:35 PM, Berk Geveci <berk.geveci at kitware.com>wrote:

> Actually, now I remember having a discussion with Will where he explained
> the reasoning behind this design. In vtkPolyData the locations array is
> created only as needed. In rendering, all a mapper needs to do is to
> iterate over triangles or polygons to render them. The vtkCellArray
> structure is a good fit for this. Without needing locations.
> vtkUnstructuredGrid adds the locations array to provide random access to
> vtkCellArray.
>
> Given this particular use case, maybe we should consider splitting the
> implementation of cell arrays for polydata and unstructured grids? This
> would allow for separate optimized implementations to address each data
> object's needs.
>
> PS: I get the feeling that this discussion is going to get out of hand
> pretty quickly since redesigning these data structures requires a lot of
> thought. As much as I enjoy a good discussion on data structures, I am not
> sure that we are prepared to go this deep in changing core data structures
> in VTK right now.
>

Sure, let's keep this from getting out of hand, but see if any good ideas
pop out from a quick discussion :-)

Dave
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