MOAB Tools Directory

This directory contains miscellaneous tools built on MOAB. Some, like mbconvert and mbsize, are useful examples of how to write MOAB applications. Others, like mbzoltan, are useful both as standalone tools and as building blocks to embed in other applications.

Tools overview

Tool	Purpose
mbconvert	Converts mesh between any two formats MOAB can read/write
mbtempest	Climate mesh generation and conservative remap weight computation
mbIntxCheck	Verify a precomputed mesh intersection
compareMaps, compareFiles	Diff weight maps / per-tag mesh files
measure	Library: length / area / volume of MOAB entities
mbsize	Reads mesh and prints size by geometric owner or block/boundary
mbskin	Computes and outputs the mesh skin (Mesquite test input)
mbsurfplot	Plots the mesh of a geometric surface projected to a plane
mbtagprop	Propagate tags from entity sets to their contained entities
hexmodops	Dual-based hex meshing research support
spheredecomp	Decompose a tet mesh into hexes that resolve vertex-located spheres
mbpart	Static partitioner — Zoltan / Metis / CHACO
mcnpmit	Interpolate .unv meshes on MCNP meshtal files
qvdual	Mesh visualization (Qt / VTK); hex-mesh dual support
vtkMOABReader	MOAB reader plugin for VTK

Adding a new tool

There are two ways a tool can be wired into the MOAB build system.

Method 1 — driven by the main MOAB <tt>configure</tt>

1. Create a Makefile.am in the tool's directory. Use tools/converter/Makefile.am as a model.
2. Add a call to the MB_OPTIONAL_TOOL macro in the main MOAB configure.in, with three arguments:
   1. The name of the tool
   2. An empty string (two square brackets: [])
   3. [yes] or [no] — whether the tool is built by default
3. Add the Makefile to the list passed to AC_CONFIG_FILES at the end of configure.in (e.g. tools/<dir>/Makefile).
4. Add a conditional to tools/Makefile.am:

   if ENABLE_<name>
     SUBDIRS += <dir>
   endif

   where <name> matches MB_OPTIONAL_TOOL's first argument and <dir> matches AC_CONFIG_FILES.

Method 2 — tool owns its own <tt>configure</tt>

1. Create the tool's own makefiles, configure, etc.
2. Add a call to MB_OPTIONAL_TOOL in configure.in with:
   1. The name of the tool
   2. The path to the tool (e.g. [tools/<dir>])
   3. [yes] or [no]
3. Add the same tools/Makefile.am conditional shown above.

CMake

Add the tool's source to tools/CMakeLists.txt under the appropriate add_executable / target definition. Optional features should be gated with MOAB_HAVE_* flags emitted by MOABConfig.h.in.