[vtkusers] vtkAbaqusElementModel and vtkAbaqusInputDeckReader

[Budd Hirons]

Hello,

I have written a vtkAbaqusElementModel class derived from 
vtkUnstructuredGrid and a associated vtkAbaqusInputDeckReader derived 
from vtkUnstructuredGridSource to load it from an Abaqus Input Deck 
produced from Patran CAE modeling software.  It supports both explicit 
and generated named Element and Node Sets from the Input Deck in the 
form of vtkIdTypeArrays using the same ids listed in the input file, and 
includes methods to generate vtkUnstructuredGrid datasets for each of 
the element sets or single elements in the Abaqus model as well as 
vtkPolyData suitable for glyphing for each of the node sets.

We use the imported cell groups (element sets) to clip segmented volume 
data for rendering and filtering and the node sets for glyphing to 
visualize pieces of a larger Finite Element Model workflow in our 
Opthalmology research lab.

Only quad hex cells are used in the models the engineers are building 
here, but the class uses a discovery method to generate the input cell 
type and should be easily extendable for other cell types.  It is a 
decent first pass and surely in need of refinement, but we have our 
basic requirements met for now.  If anyone is interested in building it 
out, let me know and I'll forward you the code.

It is built on vtk4.4, we added the latest CVS patches applied to 
vtkQuadraticHexahedron for our purposes, it compiles on Windows and MacOSX.

Cheers,
Budd Hirons

Systems Analyst II
LSU Lions Eye Center, Glaucoma Research
Louisiana Health Science Center
New Orleans, LA