keep specific patch (boundary) after CleantoGrid filter

ParaView Support
1

Hello,
this might sound as a dumb question, but the situation is the following,
i do simulations in parallel in openfoam, and one of my issues is that when i load the internal mesh data and add transparency to the view, i can see the internal boundaries of the processors. for this reason I beging by using CleantoGrid filter over the openfoam reader. on the other side, sometimes i use the patches that I load on the foam reader, such as for example, inlet. the thing is that obviously after CleantoGrid filter i ‘loss’ the information of the inlet patch, eg., i can not use extract block on CleantoGrid to get the ‘inlet’ boundary.

the only solution i can see right now is to: load the patch, use extractBlock and CleantoGrid on the foam reader, and then use group datasets filter and continue from it with the rest of the paraview script. (this way i can use extractBlock and the display will not show the interface of the processors). i might be overthinking something in the middle, if thats the case, is there a ‘cleanner’ way to get; a source, that has the internalMesh and the boundaries separated AND that if it is in parallel and with opacity!=1 will not show the processors interfaces?
thanks in advance

EDIT: sorry, i see that if I do in the gui of paraview i can still extract the inlet on the CleantoGrid output, so i might be missing something (as i am doing it in python)
my code looks like this:

#open the foam case
simfoam = OpenFOAMReader(registrationName='sim.foam', FileName=casePath, CaseType=CaseType)
simfoam.SkipZeroTime = 0
simfoam.Createcelltopointfiltereddata = 1

#merge the processor boundaries
if simfoam.CaseType=='Decomposed Case':
    nProc=len(glob.glob(casePath+'/processor*'))
    filterForData = CleantoGrid(registrationName='filterWithoutProcBoundaries', Input=simfoam)
else:
    filterForData=simfoam

#load the inlet patch
simfoam.Set(
    MeshRegions=['internalMesh', 'patch/inlet'])

#extract the inlet patch
inlet0 = ExtractBlock(registrationName='ExtractBlock_inlet', Input=filterForData,
                            Selectors = [
                                '/Root/boundary/inlet'
                                ]
                            )

when doing this in pvbatch i get an error, when I do this in the GUI it works, so maybe i am missing something that the trace tool does not show?

2

Which error ?

3

sorry i was late and did not full commented.
this is the code:

simfoam = OpenFOAMReader(registrationName=f'{caseFolder}.foam', FileName=casePath, CaseType=CaseType)
simfoam.SkipZeroTime = 0
simfoam.Createcelltopointfiltereddata = 1
animationScene1 = GetAnimationScene()
animationScene1.UpdateAnimationUsingDataTimeSteps()
renderView = GetActiveViewOrCreate('RenderView')
renderView.OrientationAxesVisibility = 0
timeSteps=simfoam.TimestepValues

if simfoam.CaseType=='Decomposed Case':
    nProc=len(glob.glob(casePath+'/processor*'))
    filterForData = CleantoGrid(registrationName='filterWithoutProcBoundaries', Input=simfoam)
    ##filterForData=simfoam   <== line to comment
else:
    filterForData=simfoam

    # load patches
simfoam.Set(
    MeshRegions=['internalMesh', 'patch/inlet'])


inlet0 = ExtractBlock(registrationName='ExtractBlock_inlet', Input=filterForData,
                            Selectors = [
                                '/Root/boundary/inlet'
                                ]
                            )
surfaceNormals0 = SurfaceNormals(registrationName='surfaceNormals0', Input=inlet0, ComputeCellNormals=1)

it is not the extractBlock that gives me issues it is the surfaceNormals0 that gives me actually.
if I run this in the python console of paraview, paraview does not give me any error (in principle) but when i hit the eye of the surfaceNormals0 it crashes completly and i get this error:

critical: In unknown, line 0
critical: Cannot open data file " "" "
error: exception occurred: Segmentation fault

if i uncomment the line ##filterForData=simfoam <== line to comment inside the if ... 'Decomposed Case'
then it does everything correctly (and i can ‘show’ the surfaceNormals0 without paraview crashing.)
if i run this script in pvbatch, in the following lines after i use the normals generated by the filter in a calculator, if i leave the line commented (so i am using the CleantoGrid filter to continue the script, it will throw an error during the calculation), and if i uncomment it, it works without error (the calculator filter)