[Numpy-discussion] how to efficiently build an array of x, y, z points

[Christopher Barker]

Bruce Southey wrote:
> Christopher Barker provided some code last last year on appending 
> ndarrays eg:
> http://mail.scipy.org/pipermail/numpy-discussion/2009-November/046634.html

yup, I"d love someone else to pick that up and test/improve it.

Anyway, that code only handles 1-d arrays, though that can be structured 
arrays. I"d like to extend it to handlw n-d arrays, though you could 
only grow them in the first dimension, which may work for your case.

As for performance:

My numpy code is a bit slower than using python lists, if you add 
elements one at a time, and the elements are a standard python data 
type. It should use less memory though, if that matters.

If you add the data in big enough chunks, my method gets better performance.


> Ultimately I'm trying to build a tvtk unstructured grid to view in a 
> Traits/tvtk/Mayavi app.

I'd love to see that working, once you've got it!

 > The grid is ni*nj*nk cells with 8 xyz's per cell
> (hexahedral cell with 6 faces). However some cells are inactive and 
> therefore don't have geometry. Cells also have "connectivity" to other 
> cells, usually to adjacent cells (e.g. cell i,j,k connected to cell 
> i-1,j,k) but not always.

I'm confused now -- what does the array need to look like in the end? Maybe:

  ni*nj*nk X 8 X 3  ?

How is inactive indicated?

Is the connectivity somehow in the same array, or is that stored separately?

-Chris

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Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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