PDMT, acryonm for Parallel Dual Meshing Tool, is a polyhedral meshing/remsehing tool. It harnesses the power of the finite element framework (FreeFEM) to facilitate the seamless transformation of a triangular or tetrahedral mesh into a more versatile and efficient polyhedral mesh. PDMT adeptly identifies the dual structure of the original triangular mesh, thereby establishing a solid foundation for the subsequent creation of the polyhedral mesh. The underlying Voronoi frame is utilized to form this new polyhedral mesh, ensuring optimal utilization of computational resources and enhancing the mesh's adaptability for a diverse range of engineering simulations and scientific analyses.

Dependencies

To compile and use PDMT, you will need the following dependencies:

• FreeFEM
• MedCoupling (optional for .med mesh support)

Compilation

Compilation with precompiled MedCoupling (install procedure 1)

Below, we present a step-by-step guide on how to compile and install PDMT with precompiled MedCoupling support for FreeFEM:

Prepare the Build Configuration:

Run the following command to prepare the build configuration:

autoreconf -i

Configure the Build:

Now, let's configure the build by specifying the necessary options using the configure script:

./configure \
--prefix=/home/Work/tmp/pdmt \
--with-medcoupling=/home/Install/TarPackages/SALOME-9.10.0-native-UB22.04/BINARIES-UB22.04/MEDCOUPLING \
--with-medfile=/home/Install/TarPackages/SALOME-9.10.0-native-UB22.04/BINARIES-UB22.04/medfile         \
--with-hdf5=/home/Install/TarPackages/SALOME-9.10.0-native-UB22.04/BINARIES-UB22.04/hdf5

In this configuration:

• PDMT will be installed in the /home/Work/tmp/pdmt directory. You can choose a directory that you wish to install PDMT.
• The root directories for medcoupling , medfile, and hdf5 which come as precompiled with SALOME are provided /home/Install/TarPackages/SALOME-9.10.0-native-UB22.04/BINARIES-UB22.04/. To get your precompiled SALOME click here.
• To proceed with the build, ensure that FreeFEM is already installed and available in your $PATH. If not use flag --with-FreeFEM to configure with FreeFEM installed elsewhere.

Please note you will need to adapt each flag to your specific system.

Compile PDMT:

With the configuration set, it's time to compile PDMT and make sure it is ready for use:

make

Install PDMT:

Once the compilation process is successful, proceed to install PDMT using the following command:

make install

By following these steps, you should have successfully compiled and installed PDMT linked with precompiled MedCoupling support for FreeFEM.

Compilation with MedCoupling (install procedure 2)

Here is a step-by-step guide for the typical compilation process:

Prepare the Build Configuration:

Begin by running the following command to set up the build configuration:

autoreconf -i

Configure the Build:

Next, use the configure script to configure the build with the required options:

./configure \
--prefix=/home/Work/tmp/pdmt \
--with-dependencies

In this configuration:

• PDMT will be installed in the /home/Work/tmp/pdmt directory. You can choose a directory that you wish to install PDMT.
• After successfull install, the root directories for medcoupling, medfile, and hdf5 will be automatically located in ext/MEDCOUPLING-9.11.0-MPI/INSTALL.
• Ensure that FreeFEM is already installed and available in your $PATH. If not use flag --with-FreeFEM to configure with FreeFEM installed elsewhere.

Compile PDMT:

With the configuration set, it's time to compile PDMT and make sure it is ready for use:

make

Install PDMT:

Once the compilation process is successful, proceed to install PDMT using the following command:

make install

By following these steps, you should have successfully compiled and installed PDMT linked with MedCoupling support for FreeFEM.

Check the compilation

To ensure a successful compilation, you can run the following command to perform checks:

make check

Note

to use and run PDMT with med support please make sure that your $LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable contains medcoupling, medfile, and hdf5 paths. For example for the install above

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/home/Install/TarPackages/SALOME-9.10.0-native-UB22.04/BINARIES-UB22.04/MEDCOUPLING/lib:/home/Install/TarPackages/SALOME-9.10.0-native-UB22.04/BINARIES-UB22.04/medfile/lib:/home/Install/TarPackages/SALOME-9.10.0-native-UB22.04/BINARIES-UB22.04/hdf5/lib

By following these steps, you will have successfully compiled and installed PDMT with MedCoupling support for FreeFEM. Enjoy the poly meshes for your computational simulations!

Usage

After installation is done you can simply launch the PDMT mesh conversion via a TUI in any folder of choice. The list of command line flags it accepts

• --debug : to print some verbos info about the meshing process
• --mesh : to provide mesh for conversion, it accepts .mesh, .msh, .vtk, .med(conditional) formats. Also accepts ("square" or "circle").

Example 1:

PDMT --debug --mesh /your/mesh/file.mesh

For generating meshes that are presented above you can use the mesh files provided in msh folder. From top left clockwise:

• for the disk mesh with five holes mesh is provided in .vtk format

PDMT --debug --mesh /msh/disk5holes.vtk

• for the pentagon mesh is provided in .mesh fromat

PDMT --debug --mesh /msh/pentagon.mesh

• for the triangle with one hole at the center mesh is provided in .med format

PDMT --debug --mesh /msh/triangle1hole.med --med_mesh_name Mesh_1

• for the disk with large decentered hole mesh is provided in .msh format

PDMT --debug --mesh /msh/disk1hole.msh