gridlib: Flexible and Efficient Grid Management for Simulation and Visualization

This paper describes the gridlib project, a unified grid management framework for simulation and visualization. Both, adaptive PDE-solvers and interactive visualization toolkits, have to manage dynamic grids. The gridlib meets the similar but not identical demands on grid management from the two sides, visualization and simulation. One immediate advantage of working on a common grid is the fact that the visualization has direct access to the simulation results, which eliminates the need for any form of data conversion. Furthermore, the gridlib provides support for unstructured grids, the re-use of existing solvers, the appropriate use of hardware in the visualization pipeline, grid adaptation and hierarchical hybrid grids. The present paper shows how these features have been included in the gridlib design to combine run-time efficiency with the flexibility necessary to ensure wide applicability. The functionality provided the gridlib helps to speed up program development for simulation and visualization alike.