Exdasy - a user friendly and extendable data distribution system

This paper introduces Exdasy - a user friendly and extendable software tool for partitioning unstructured meshes and mapping mesh partitions to parallel computers. Exdasy was designed to meet the increasing demands to today's  data distribution systems, which are posed by the variety of mesh computations, the ongoing development of distribution algorithms, and rapid changes in parallel hardware technology. For this, Exdasy offers third-party state-of-the-art distribution algorithms augmented with graphical user interfaces and powerful graphical evaluation displays. Evaluation of distributions is based on various quality metrics and static machine parameters.  Exdasy provides a modular architecture by means of replaceable distribution algorithms, machine models and evaluation facilities. Hereby it is attractive to both users and developers