# Partition error of a mesh generated by Pointwise

**URL:** <https://pyfr.discourse.group/t/partition-error-of-a-mesh-generated-by-pointwise/1312>\
**Category:** Errors\
**Tags:** mesh\
**Created:** [24 October 2025 11:59 UTC](https://pyfr.discourse.group/t/partition-error-of-a-mesh-generated-by-pointwise/1312 "2025-10-24T11:59:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![y.y](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e5b9ba/32.png) [@y.y](https://pyfr.discourse.group/u/y.y)\
**Post date:** [24 October 2025 11:59 UTC](https://pyfr.discourse.group/t/partition-error-of-a-mesh-generated-by-pointwise/1312/1 "2025-10-24T11:59:37Z")

</div>

[Enviroment]

- PyFR 2.1
- Pointwise 2024.2.1
- METIS 5.2.1

I generated mesh with Pointwise, and tried mesh partition but I got an error.

```bash
pyfr partition 8 lrn1015_structured_2c.pyfrm .
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/share/vol7/yatsu/PyFR/venv/pyfr/bin/pyfr", line 8, in <module>
    sys.exit(main())
             ^^^^^^
  File "/share/vol7/yatsu/PyFR/venv/pyfr/lib/python3.11/site-packages/pyfr/ __main__.py", line 124, in main
    args.process(args)
  File "/share/vol7/yatsu/PyFR/venv/pyfr/lib/python3.11/site-packages/pyfr/ __main__.py", line 190, in process_partition
    mesh, rnum, part_soln_fn = part.partition(mesh, args.progress)
                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/share/vol7/yatsu/PyFR/venv/pyfr/lib/python3.11/site-packages/pyfr/partitioners/base.py", line 376, in partition
    mesh, rnum = self._combine_mesh_parts(mesh)
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/share/vol7/yatsu/PyFR/venv/pyfr/lib/python3.11/site-packages/pyfr/partitioners/base.py", line 53, in _combine_mesh_parts
    linf[en].append(mesh[f'spt_{en}_p{i}', 'linear'])
                    ~~~~ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/share/vol7/yatsu/PyFR/venv/pyfr/lib/python3.11/site-packages/pyfr/readers/native.py", line 37, in __getitem__
    return self._file[aname[0]].attrs[aname[1]]
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^^^^^^^^^^
  File "h5py/_objects.pyx", line 56, in h5py._objects.with_phil.wrapper
  File "h5py/_objects.pyx", line 57, in h5py._objects.with_phil.wrapper
  File "/share/vol7/yatsu/PyFR/venv/pyfr/lib/python3.11/site-packages/h5py/_hl/attrs.py", line 56, in __getitem__
    attr = h5a.open(self._id, self._e(name))
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "h5py/_objects.pyx", line 56, in h5py._objects.with_phil.wrapper
  File "h5py/_objects.pyx", line 57, in h5py._objects.with_phil.wrapper
  File "h5py/h5a.pyx", line 80, in h5py.h5a.open
KeyError: "Unable to synchronously open attribute (can't locate attribute: 'linear')"

```

I succeed performing mesh partition with tutorial cases, so I gueesed this problem is unique for mesh generation process with Pointwise. Is there any solution for this issue?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fdw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@fdw](https://pyfr.discourse.group/u/fdw)\
**Post date:** [24 October 2025 12:29 UTC](https://pyfr.discourse.group/t/partition-error-of-a-mesh-generated-by-pointwise/1312/2 "2025-10-24T12:29:37Z")

</div>

Pointwise have not updated their PyFR export support in many years. I also do not believe that it ever supported high order (curved) grids; as such it is worthless.

Export to Gmsh and import into PyFR.

Regards, Freddie.