"Meta" reader for exodus restart files
This issue was created automatically from an original Mantis Issue. Further discussion may take place here.
Managing multiple restart files from a simulation is currently a pain - in general, each restart file will contain timesteps that "overlap" with the previous file. Loading multiple files, duplicating pipelines, and managing the overlapping timesteps is extremely time-consuming. We would like to explore options for improving this. Consolidating restart files into a single file without overlapping timesteps is the technically easy solution, but it may not be practical to have a duplicate of a massive dataset. We propose a "meta" reader that would act as an abstraction for a collection of restart files. The meta reader allow the user to setup a single pipeline and view their data as a single contiguous set of timesteps, but would have multiple inputs from exodus readers, one-per-restart file. The meta reader would then handle the details of reading the correct timestep from the correct input reader in response to user input. Ideally, the meta reader could be used with any type of reader that supports timesteps, not just exodus.