fix: propagate HDF5_DIR from Chrono config

The early find_package(HDF5 CONFIG QUIET) before find_package(Chrono) was writing HDF5_DIR-NOTFOUND into the CMake cache. Chrono's config then failed to overwrite it, so the later REQUIRED find also failed.

Fix: extract HDF5_DIR from chrono-config.cmake in build.ps1 and pass it on the cmake command line (same pattern as Eigen3). Also fix the detection regex to match CHRONO_HDF5_AVAILABLE set to 1 (not just ON/TRUE).

Author: dav-og

CMakeLists.txt

@@ -188,6 +188,16 @@ find_package(Chrono
              CONFIG REQUIRED
              COMPONENTS Parsers)
 
+# If the early HDF5 find failed but Chrono has now set HDF5_DIR, retry.
+# The early find may have cached HDF5_DIR-NOTFOUND, blocking Chrono's
+# non-FORCE cache set.  Clear it and retry with the Chrono-provided path.
+if(NOT HDF5_FOUND AND DEFINED CACHE{HDF5_DIR})
+    if("${HDF5_DIR}" MATCHES "NOTFOUND")
+        unset(HDF5_DIR CACHE)
+        find_package(HDF5 CONFIG QUIET)
+    endif()
+endif()
+
 message(STATUS "----\n")
 
 message(STATUS "Chrono targets: ${CHRONO_TARGETS}")

build.ps1

@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ $chronoContent = Get-Content $chronoConfig -Raw
 # Auto-detect available modules
 $hasIrrlicht = $chronoContent -match 'Chrono_IRRLICHT_AVAILABLE\s+ON'
 $hasVSG = $chronoContent -match 'Chrono_VSG_AVAILABLE\s+ON'
-$hasHDF5 = $chronoContent -match 'CHRONO_HDF5_AVAILABLE\s+TRUE'
+$hasHDF5 = $chronoContent -match 'CHRONO_HDF5_AVAILABLE\s+(ON|TRUE|1)'
 
 # Enable features by default if Chrono has them (unless user disabled)
 $useIrrlicht = $hasIrrlicht -and (-not $NoIrrlicht)
@@ -151,7 +151,7 @@ Write-Detail "VSG: $(if($hasVSG){if($useVSG){'ON'}else{'OFF (disabled)'}}else{'n
 Write-Detail "HDF5: $(if($hasHDF5){'available'}else{'not available'})"
 
 if (-not $hasHDF5) {
-    Write-Warn "Chrono built without HDF5 - build may fail"
+    Write-Warn "Chrono built without HDF5 - HydroChrono requires HDF5 for .h5 data loading"
 }
 
 # Eigen3: extract include path from Chrono config so FindEigen3.cmake can
@@ -177,6 +177,19 @@ if (-not $eigen3Include -and $chronoContent -match 'EIGEN3_INCLUDE_DIR\s+"([^"]+
     }
 }
 
+# HDF5: extract HDF5_DIR from Chrono config so CMake can find the vcpkg
+# (or other non-system) HDF5 installation before the early pre-load step.
+$hdf5Dir = $null
+if ($chronoContent -match 'HDF5_DIR\s+"([^"]+)"' -and $Matches[1] -notmatch 'NOTFOUND') {
+    $candidate = $Matches[1]
+    if (Test-Path (Join-Path $candidate "hdf5-config.cmake")) {
+        $hdf5Dir = $candidate
+        Write-OK "HDF5: $hdf5Dir"
+    } else {
+        Write-Warn "HDF5 config not found at $candidate"
+    }
+}
+
 # =============================================================================
 # Check CMake
 # =============================================================================
@@ -238,6 +251,11 @@ if ($eigen3Include) {
     $cmakeArgs += "-DEIGEN3_INCLUDE_DIR=`"$($eigen3Include -replace '\\','/')`""
 }
 
+# Add HDF5 config path if extracted from Chrono config
+if ($hdf5Dir) {
+    $cmakeArgs += "-DHDF5_DIR=`"$($hdf5Dir -replace '\\','/')`""
+}
+
 # Add Python if specified
 if ($PythonRoot -and (Test-Path $PythonRoot)) {
     $cmakeArgs += "-DPython3_ROOT_DIR=`"$($PythonRoot -replace '\\','/')`""