Tensorial fields visualization enhancements
May I suggest two enhancements for better tensorial fields visualization:
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In Node data or Elmt data section of .msh2 file format, the second int tag corresponds to the number of values defined by node/element. For the visualization, it automatically recognizes the values 1 (scalar), 3 (norm of vector) and 9 (von Mises equivalent value). It would be useful to recognize 6 as well to reduce amount of data in result file (symmetric tensor as for strain/stress under SPH). For this, a convention has to be adopted for:
- The way values are listed (v0-v4-v8-v1-v5-v2 or v0-v4-v8-v5-v2-v1 or v0-v1-v2-v4-v5-v8)
- Multiplicative factor for shear values - classically, a '2' is used for strain, and '1' for stress; other approach is to use sqrt(2) for all fields; maybe for coherence with the other fields type in gmsh, better to always keep '1'.
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In the 'Extract' plugin, if dealing with a tensorial field and von-Mises stress is illustrated, it would be logical to have the corresponding von Mises formula instead of sqrt(v0v0 + v1v1 + v2*v2), which is valid for vectors.