Is is possible to convert C# double[,,] array to double[] without making a copy

Question

I have huge 3D arrays of numbers in my .NET application. I need to convert them to a 1D array to pass it to a COM library. Is there a way to convert the array without making a copy of all the data?

I can do the conversion like this, but then I use twice the ammount of memory which is an issue in my application:

  double[] result = new double[input.GetLength(0) * input.GetLength(1) * input.GetLength(2)];
  for (i = 0; i < input.GetLength(0); i++) 
    for (j = 0; j < input.GetLength(1); j++) 
      for (k = 0; k < input.GetLength(2); k++) 
        result[i * input.GetLength(1) * input.GetLength(2) + j * input.GetLength(2) + k)] = input[i,j,l];
  return result;

Answer 1

I don't believe the way C# stores that data in memory would make it feasible the same way a simple cast in C would. Why not use a 1d array to begin with and perhaps make a class for the type so you can access it in your program as if it were a 3d array?