Transitioning from mesh.xml to mesh.xdmf, from dolfin-convert to meshio

I have read that the support from dolfin-convert is almost nill and will soon be deprecated. This means I have to change the way I read the mesh file created with Gmsh in my codes, but so far I am unable to do it. My goal is to make the transition as smooth as possible.
As of now I create a file.geo with Gmsh, convert it to a file.msh using the command gmsh file.geo -format msh2 -3. Then I use dolfin-convert file.msh file.xml which creates 2 files I can read with dolfin, and everything is easy and fine. More precisely, I do

subdomains = MeshFunction(“size_t”, mesh, file_physical_region.xml)
boundary_parts = MeshFunction(“size_t”, mesh, file_facet_region.xml)

This is what I would like to achieve with meshio. From what I have read, meshio supports some features of dolfin-convert regarding the xml file format, but it isn’t quite similar so it is impossible to reproduce what dolfin-convert does in the above example. Furthermore, XDMF is instead the suggested alternative.
So, let’s take the following file.geo:

SetFactory("OpenCASCADE");
Mesh.RandomFactor=1.0e-6;
lc=0.00017;
a = 0.002;
b = 0.001;
c = 0.00003;
Point(1) = {-a/2, -b/2, -c/2, lc};
Point(2) = {-a/2, b/2, -c/2, lc};
Point(3) = {a/2, b/2, -c/2, lc};
Point(4) = {a/2, -b/2, -c/2, lc};
Line(1) = {1,2};
Line(2) = {2,3};
Line(3) = {3,4};
Line(4) = {4,1};
Line Loop(5) = {1,2,3,4};
Point(7) = {-a/10 + a/4.4,-b/10-b/3, -c/2, lc};
Point(8) = {-a/10 + a/4.4,b/10-b/3,-c/2, lc};
Point(9) = {a/10 + a/4.4, b/10-b/3,-c/2, lc};
Point(10) = {a/10 + a/4.4,-b/10-b/3,-c/2, lc};
Line(11) = {7,8};
Line(12) = {8,9};
Line(13) = {9,10};
Line(14) = {10,7};
Line Loop(15) = {11,12,13,14};
Plane Surface(16) = {15};
Point(17) = {-a/16+a/4,-b/16+b/3.2, -c/2, lc};
Point(18) = {-a/16+a/4,b/16+b/3.2,-c/2, lc};
Point(19) = {a/16+a/4, b/16+b/3.2,-c/2, lc};
Point(20) = {a/16+a/4,-b/16+b/3.2,-c/2, lc};
Line(21) = {17,18};
Line(22) = {18,19};
Line(23) = {19,20};
Line(24) = {20,17};
Line Loop(25) = {21,22,23,24};
Plane Surface(26) = {25};
Point(27) = {-a/20-a/2.5,-b/3, -c/2, lc};
Point(28) = {-a/20-a/2.5,b/3,-c/2, lc};
Point(29) = {a/20-a/2.5, b/3,-c/2, lc};
Point(30) = {a/20-a/2.5,-b/3,-c/2, lc};
Line(31) = {27,28};
Line(32) = {28,29};
Line(33) = {29,30};
Line(34) = {30,27};
Line Loop(35) = {31,32,33,34};
Plane Surface(36) = {35};
Point(37) = {-a/4,-b/3, -c/2, lc};
Point(38) = {-a/4,b/3,-c/2, lc};
Point(39) = {-a/5, b/3,-c/2, lc};
Point(40) = {-a/5,-b/3,-c/2, lc};
Line(41) = {37,38};
Line(42) = {38,39};
Line(43) = {39,40};
Line(44) = {40,37};
Line Loop(45) = {41,42,43,44};
Plane Surface(46) = {45};
Plane Surface(47)={5,25,15,35,45};
Physical Surface("bottom")={47};
Physical Surface("bot_1")={16};
Physical Surface("bot_2")={26};
Physical Surface("bot_3")={36};
Physical Surface("bot_4")={46};
surfaceVector[] = Extrude {0, 0, c} {
     Surface{47,26,16,36,46};
     Layers{31};
    };
Physical Surface("top") = {surfaceVector[0]};
Physical Volume("parallelepiped") = {surfaceVector[1]};
Physical Surface("left") = {surfaceVector[2]};
Physical Surface("back") = {surfaceVector[3]};
Physical Surface("right") = {surfaceVector[4]};
Physical Surface("front") = {surfaceVector[5]};
Physical Surface("top_2") = {surfaceVector[22]};
Physical Volume("stuff_2") = {surfaceVector[23]};
Physical Surface("top_1") = {surfaceVector[28]};
Physical Volume("stuff_1") = {surfaceVector[29]};
Physical Surface("top_3") = {surfaceVector[34]};
Physical Volume("stuff_3") = {surfaceVector[35]};
Physical Surface("top_4") = {surfaceVector[40]};
Physical Volume("stuff_4") = {surfaceVector[41]};

Then we create the file.msh using gmsh file.geo -3. Then we use meshio-convert file.msh file.xdmf. We now have a file.h5 and a file.xdmf.

And this is where I am stuck, I do not know how to read the mesh and assign the boundaries as I used to do with the file.xml that was produced with dolfin-convert.
I tried:

from dolfin import *
mesh = Mesh()
with XDMFFile("file.xdmf") as infile:
    infile.read(mesh)

But this yields


RuntimeError Traceback (most recent call last)
in
8 with XDMFFile(“file.xdmf”) as infile:
----> 9 infile.read(mesh)
10

RuntimeError:

*** -------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** DOLFIN encountered an error. If you are not able to resolve this issue
*** using the information listed below, you can ask for help at


*** fenics-support@googlegroups.com


*** Remember to include the error message listed below and, if possible,
*** include a minimal running example to reproduce the error.


*** -------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** Error: Unable to recognise cell type.
*** Reason: Unknown value “mixed”.
*** Where: This error was encountered inside XDMFFile.cpp.
*** Process: 0


*** DOLFIN version: 2018.1.0
*** Git changeset: unknown
*** -------------------------------------------------------------------------

So it seems unable to recognize the cell type. I get exactly the same error if I use the deprecated -format msh2 flag in the gmsh command to produce the file.msh. Thus, overall, I do not know how to reproduce the simple commands that work with the file.xml produced with dolfin-convert, using meshio.

Note that I had posted a similiar question there but I eventually ran into errors and so this lead to no solution.

6 Likes

See this gist, before converting to XDMF you’d need to “prune” all lower-dimensional elements, as currently FEniCS does not support “mixed” mesh composing from several element types (may they belong to a same dimension or not!) According to their recent released roadmap, the support for mixed elements is for long term


This can be done using meshio and writing the explicit data to xdmf file.

import meshio
msh = meshio.read("test.msh")

meshio.write("mesh.xdmf", meshio.Mesh(points=msh.points, cells={"tetra": msh.cells["tetra"]}))
meshio.write("mf.xdmf", meshio.Mesh(points=msh.points, cells={"triangle": msh.cells["triangle"]},
                                    cell_data={"triangle": {"name_to_read": msh.cell_data["triangle"]["gmsh:physical"]}}))

from dolfin import * 
mesh = Mesh()
with XDMFFile("mesh.xdmf") as infile:
    infile.read(mesh)
mvc = MeshValueCollection("size_t", mesh, 2) 
with XDMFFile("mf.xdmf") as infile:
    infile.read(mvc, "name_to_read")
mf = cpp.mesh.MeshFunctionSizet(mesh, mvc)
File("dolfinmesh.pvd").write(mesh)
File("dolfincellfunc.pvd").write(mf)
11 Likes

Thank you very much! If that’s not too much asked, how can I proceed and do the equivalent of the lines

subdomains = MeshFunction(“size_t”, mesh, file_physical_region.xml)
boundary_parts = MeshFunction(“size_t”, mesh, file_facet_region.xml)

?
I cannot simply replace file_physical_region.xml by dolfinmesh.pvd and file_facet_region.xml by dolfincellfunc.pvd.

Hmm but isn’t it strange that I do not need any manual pruning when I use dolfin-convert to xml? As far as I understand, the elements of the mesh shouldn’t depend on the file extension
 I guess I’m missing something.

1 Like

Well dolfin_convert is specially designed for FEniCS so I suppose these lower dimensional elements are taken care of during conversion. meshio is a generic mesh convertor so we try to conserve all original mesh information.

Le ven. 22 mars 2019 Ă  16:58, raboynics via FEniCS Project fenicsproject1@discoursemail.com a Ă©crit :

As you can see in the code snippet above, I first read the boundary data to the file mf.xdmf. this is equivalent to facet_region.xml.
For the cellfunction:

meshio.write("cf.xdmf", meshio.Mesh(
    points=msh.points, cells={"tetra": msh.cells["tetra"]},
    cell_data={"tetra": {"name_to_read":
                            msh.cell_data["tetra"]["gmsh:physical"]}}))
mvc = MeshValueCollection("size_t", mesh, 3)
with XDMFFile("cf.xdmf") as infile:
    infile.read(mvc, "name_to_read")
cf = cpp.mesh.MeshFunctionSizet(mesh, mvc)

1 Like

If I understand well, what I call subdomains corresponds to your mvc, while what I call boundary_parts corresponds to your cf.
But when I use your code and then subdomains = mvc and boundary_parts = cf, I get nonsensical results.
For example a non-zero surface area assemble(1 * ds(12, domain=mesh)) returns 0 now, instead of the correct area. I suspect it’s because in my original code I have mesh = Mesh("file.xml") while in my new code I have mesh = Mesh(). I do not know which argument I can put inside the function Mesh(). I tried the XDMF file, but this returns an error. So I still don’t know how to make the full transition to XDMF.

Furthermore I am only able to reach that far on an Ubuntu machine, where dolfin has been compiled with hdf5 support. On Arch Linux (at home), I get an error message when I use your snippet codes as described in an earlier question here, and on the fenics support mailing list. I do not know how to compile dolfin with hdf5 support, it doesn’t do it by default even when the hdf5 package(s) are installed.

I dont really now how to help you further. If you use the docker to install fenics, and then run the following:

 docker run -ti --rm -v $(pwd):/home/fenics/shared quay.io/fenicsproject/stable:latest
 sudo pip install meshio lxml h5py

I used gmsh 3.0.6 to generate the msh file.
Then running the following script:

import meshio
msh = meshio.read("file.msh")

meshio.write("mesh.xdmf", meshio.Mesh(points=msh.points, cells={"tetra": msh.cells["tetra"]}))
meshio.write("mf.xdmf", meshio.Mesh(points=msh.points, cells={"triangle": msh.cells["triangle"]},
                                    cell_data={"triangle": {"name_to_read": msh.cell_data["triangle"]["gmsh:physical"]}}))
meshio.write("cf.xdmf", meshio.Mesh(
    points=msh.points, cells={"tetra": msh.cells["tetra"]},
    cell_data={"tetra": {"name_to_read":
                            msh.cell_data["tetra"]["gmsh:physical"]}}))


from dolfin import * 
mesh = Mesh()
with XDMFFile("mesh.xdmf") as infile:
    infile.read(mesh)
mvc = MeshValueCollection("size_t", mesh, 2) 
with XDMFFile("mf.xdmf") as infile:
    infile.read(mvc, "name_to_read")
mf = cpp.mesh.MeshFunctionSizet(mesh, mvc)

mvc = MeshValueCollection("size_t", mesh, 3)
with XDMFFile("cf.xdmf") as infile:
    infile.read(mvc, "name_to_read")
cf = cpp.mesh.MeshFunctionSizet(mesh, mvc)

ds_custom = Measure("ds", domain=mesh, subdomain_data=mf, subdomain_id=12)
print(assemble(1*ds_custom))

I get a non-zero output:

3.125e-08
3 Likes

Thank you very much for the information and code snippet. I can finally get it to work (on Ubuntu). However there is a slight discrepancy with the result of solving a weak form problem I get with the file.xml from dolfin-convert, and I do not know which one is more accurate (xdmf or xml). Can I simply compare the number of mesh elements in the two cases and the ones with a higher number should in principle be the most accurate?

More precisely, for a calculation I get 0.01031139055668843 with the xdmf mesh and 0.010311376092968772 with the mesh from the xml file. I have put in bold where they match.

Edit: Hmm, that’s extremely strange!
print(mesh.num_edges(), mesh.num_cells(), mesh.num_facets()) yields exactly the same numbers for both the xml and xdmf meshes. I am not sure what’s causing the solution to a complicated weak form to differ, since I copied and pasted the whole code and modified only the mesh part.

Hello!

I’m having a similar problem. I have mesh.msh file generated with

gmsh mesh.geo -2 -format msh2 -o mesh.msh

And when I read it a try to create a new meshio Mesh as

mesh = meshio.read(‘mesh.msh’)
mesh.points = mesh.points[:, :2] # remove z-values to force 2d
mesh = meshio.Mesh(points=mesh.points, cells={“triangle”: mesh.cells[“triangle”]})

I got KeyValue error ‘triangle’ since mesh.cells are only ‘lines’ not ‘triangle’.

Could anybody please help me with that?

Thanks!

Could you please post your GEO file?

1 Like

// the square
Point(1) = {0, 0, 0, 0.1E+3};
Point(2) = {0, 11E+3, 0, 0.1E+3};
Point(3) = {11E+3, 11E+3, 0, 0.1E+3};
Point(4) = {11E+3, 0, 0, 0.1E+3};
Line(1) = {1, 4};
Line(2) = {4, 3};
Line(3) = {3, 2};
Line(4) = {2, 1};
// the circle in the centre
Point(5) = {5.5E+3, 5.5E+3, 0, 0.1E+3};
Point(6) = {1E+3, 5.5E+3, 0, 0.1E+3};
Circle(5) = {6, 5, 6};
// creating the surfaces
Line Loop(6) = {2, 3, 4, 1};
Line Loop(7) = {5};
Plane Surface(8) = {6, 7};
Plane Surface(9) = {7};
//extruding them
Extrude {0, 0, 0.55E+3} {
Surface{9, 8}; Layers{10};
}//+
Physical Volume(0) = {1, 2};
//+
Physical Surface(1) = {16};
//+
Physical Surface(2) = {9};

Couple of notes, are you doing a 2D mesh ? When i Look at you mesh in gmsh, it strikes me as you would like to have a 3D mesh?

I am doing 3D mesh, how can i use to write and read it for fenics?
I got errors

I am aplying Dirichilet boundary on Physical surface 1 and Newman in surface 2.
I am solving a poisson system like in transient.

Could you supply me with your error messages, as I your mesh file, with gmsh -3 mesh3d.geo, and

import meshio

msh = meshio.read("mesh3d.msh")


meshio.write("mesh.xdmf", meshio.Mesh(points=msh.points, cells={"tetra": msh.cells["tetra"]}))
meshio.write("mf.xdmf", meshio.Mesh(points=msh.points, cells={"triangle": msh.cells["triangle"]},
                                    cell_data={"triangle": {"name_to_read": msh.cell_data["triangle"]["gmsh:physical"]}}))
meshio.write("cf.xdmf", meshio.Mesh(
    points=msh.points, cells={"tetra": msh.cells["tetra"]},
    cell_data={"tetra": {"name_to_read":
                            msh.cell_data["tetra"]["gmsh:physical"]}}))


from dolfin import * 
mesh = Mesh()
with XDMFFile("mesh.xdmf") as infile:
    infile.read(mesh)
mvc = MeshValueCollection("size_t", mesh, 2) 
with XDMFFile("mf.xdmf") as infile:
    infile.read(mvc, "name_to_read")
mf = cpp.mesh.MeshFunctionSizet(mesh, mvc)

works for me

2 Likes

Hi everyone,

i’m currently trying to import a complex mesh geometry in Fenics.
The original file is from the Nastran format .nas. I opened the file in gmsh and exported it as .msh file. So far, so good.
I can read the file succesfully using meshio.read and write it to one .xdmf file using meshio.write:

meshio.write("mesh.xdmf", meshio.Mesh(points=msh.points, cells={"tetra": msh.cells["tetra"]}))

But when i want to execute the second line

meshio.write("mf.xdmf", meshio.Mesh(points=msh.points, cells={"triangle": msh.cells["triangle"]},
                                    cell_data={"triangle": {"name_to_read": msh.cell_data["triangle"]["gmsh:physical"]}}))

i get the following error:

cells={"triangle": msh.cells["triangle"]},
KeyError: 'triangle'

I’m using Dolfin 2019.1.0 and used gmsh version 3.0.6, the mesh should be a 3D mesh.
I’m not quite sure if its possible to open a .nas file with gmsh and export it as .msh file.

Thanks in advance, i appreciate every little help i can get!

Does your msh file contain a ‘PhysicalNames’ section with 2D information? http://gmsh.info/doc/texinfo/gmsh.html#MSH-file-format

Maybe post the header of the msh file, this would help

1 Like

Hi,
If your mesh function is a cell function, you need to change the value "triangle" to "tetra". The second line reads a facet function, whose cells are triangles.

1 Like