[Gmsh] How to use a Field as a View?

[Marc Duflot]

Dear all,

Fields in gmsh may be defined in Mesh/Define/Fields and then used as the
definition for desired element size.  They can also be put on a view.
But, as far as I know, they can not be exported in .pos format with
"Save as..." (STL works, though) or used with a Plugin.

Am I missing something?

In my opinion, they could be useful for a broad purpose if they could be
handled like a view coming from a .pos file. As an example, let's say
that I want to define a residual stress field known as an analytical
function of the distance to the free surface. I could first use the
Attractor Field to get the distance to a geometrical entity list, next
apply the Evaluate Plugin with my function and finally save the result
in a .pos file as the input of a finite element code.

What do you think? Would it be hard to implement? I already had a look
at the source code in Post/PViewData* and am willing to contribute.

Thank you,
Marc

-- 
Dr Marc Duflot -- CENAERO
Bâtiment ÉOLE,  1er étage
Rue des Frères Wright, 29
B-6041 Gosselies, Belgium

Tel. : +32 (0)71 91.93.64
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http://research.cenaero.be/people/duflot/