[vtk-developers] [vtkusers] New class for contouring unstructured grids

[Will Schroeder]

Jeff-

This would be easily done and could be added as an option to the filter.
What happens now is that the "t" is computed for each edge tuple (v0,v1)
and then used to interpolate attributes and points (the points where the
contour intersects each edge). So the t value and edge tuple array (I
suppose a 2-component vtkIdArray) could just be output. It's probably best
if a new filter were created to do the interpolation from t and (v0,v1)
arrays.

Does that make sense / is that what you had in mind?

Best,
W

On Fri, Nov 2, 2018 at 8:39 AM Jeff Lee <jlee1549 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Nice work Will,
> I was thinking that there should be a vtk way to associate edges/weights
> with their input mesh for faster attribute interpolation (when contour
> value is not changing).  The times where it is useful depends on the
> workflow, but its cheap enough to store intersected edges and the weights
> somewhere (as field data in the contour).  I haven't looked at the code yet
> so you may have already done this.  I did this in my prior work but could
> (probably will) repeat but contribute to vtk.
> Best,
> Jeff
>
> On Fri, Nov 2, 2018 at 6:34 AM Will Schroeder <will.schroeder at kitware.com>
> wrote:
>
>> If you are interested in a new class for fast contouring of 3D
>> unstructured grids, read on.
>>
>> The class VTK/Filters/Core/vtkContour3DLinearGrid is a threaded,
>> high-performance filter for generating isocontours from unstructured grids.
>> It is specialized for 3D linear cells: any combination of tetrahedra,
>> hexahedra, voxels, pyramids, and/or wedges. (Other cell types are skipped.)
>>
>> In practice we routinely see 10-20x speed ups. In an extreme case we saw
>> a 1000x speedup (a customer's tetrahedral mesh with over 500millions tets).
>> Of course this depends on the number of threads and the particulars of the
>> data so YMMV.
>>
>> By default the class has a fast path where it just generates output
>> triangles and points, and the points are not merged (i.e., coincident
>> points exist in the output). Other available features, at the cost of some
>> speed, are point merging, attribute interpolation, and/or point normal
>> generation. (Note that for dense input meshes the fast path often produces
>> acceptable results; other options can be enabled as needed or in a
>> progressive rendering approach.)
>>
>> The speed comes from 1) threading, 2) a new edge locator
>> (vtkStaticEdgeLocatorTemplate.h/.txx) which identifies coincident points by
>> sorting edge tuples (v0,v1), 3) templating, and 4) better and more
>> efficient algorithm design.
>>
>> In particular,#2) above: contouring in VTK typically relies on point
>> locators to merge coincident points. This is not only a parallel computing
>> bottleneck, but the locator binning can execute very slowly when lots of
>> points fall into the same locator bin. (For example: an unstructured mesh
>> that resolves tiny flow features like a boundary layer etc.) The edge
>> locator eliminates this behavior. Furthermore, duplicate points are
>> identified by using a parallel sort of edge tuples using vtkSMPTools:Sort()
>> - much faster than the point locator's InsertUniquePoint().
>>
>> The effect of threading on performance is modest - it doesn't scale all
>> that well on the tests we've tried. My guess is that the data bus is
>> saturated as the algorithm does a small amount of computation which can
>> produce a large amount of output. (Set the CMake variable
>> VTK_SMP_IMPLEMENTATION_TYPE to something other than Sequential- I use TBB -
>> to enable threading. See this blog
>> <https://blog.kitware.com/simple-parallel-computing-with-vtksmptools-2/> for
>> more information.)
>>
>> Like any new algorithm I'm sure there are issues. If you are so inclined,
>> please try the filter and provide feedback. At some point we'll integrate
>> the algorithm into ParaView but it may be awhile as we are swamped :-)
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> --
>> William J. Schroeder, PhD
>> Kitware, Inc. - Building the World's Technical Computing Software
>> 28 Corporate Drive
>> Clifton Park, NY 12065
>> will.schroeder at kitware.com
>> http://www.kitware.com
>> (518) 881-4902
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>

-- 
William J. Schroeder, PhD
Kitware, Inc. - Building the World's Technical Computing Software
28 Corporate Drive
Clifton Park, NY 12065
will.schroeder at kitware.com
http://www.kitware.com
(518) 881-4902
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