> On 23 Nov 2019, at 14:02, Cotter, Colin J <colin.cotter@imperial.ac.uk> wrote:
> 
> VectorFunctionSpace(mesh, "BDM", 1) 
> ?
> 
> Is the first index the dim copies and the second index the vector component of the copies of the BDM spaces?
Yes
In [3]: V = VectorFunctionSpace(mesh, "BDM", 2, dim=4)                                              
In [4]: f = Function(V)                                                                             
In [5]: f.ufl_shape                                                                                 
Out[5]: (4, 2)
In [6]: f.sub(0)                                                                                    
Out[6]: Coefficient(WithGeometry(ComponentProxyFunctionSpace(<firedrake.mesh.MeshTopology object at 0x1202e31d0>, FiniteElement('Brezzi-Douglas-Marini', triangle, 2), name=None, index=None, component=0), Mesh(VectorElement(FiniteElement('Lagrange', triangle,
 1), dim=2), 1)), 7)
In [7]: f.sub(0).ufl_shape                                                                          
Out[7]: (2,)
In [8]: f.sub(1).ufl_shape                                                                          
Out[8]: (2,)
In [9]: f.sub(2).ufl_shape                                                                          
Out[9]: (2,)