Use the Surfaces: From FE tool to create surfaces that
closely fit a selection of shell elements.
Figure 1. . In this example the mesh is changed from wireframe to transparent to make
the surface more visible.
From the Geometry ribbon, click the Surfaces > From FE tool.
Figure 2.
Click on the guide bar and define
the following options:
Surface Complexity
Affects how many surfaces are created. This option takes into
account a number of factors, including the boundary shape of the
area to be surfaces as well as its topology. Higher complexity
values create a smaller number of more complex surfaces, but require
longer calculation times to create those surfaces. Smaller values
produce a larger number of smaller, simpler surfaces, but do so more
rapidly.
When the complexity is set to 1 (simplest surface), the
function attempts to create surfaces with few control
points. If it fails, it tries to subdivide the selected
elements until it can fit a lower order surface definition
to the elements.
When the complexity is set to 10 (complex surface), the
function first attempts to create surfaces with as few
control points as possible. If it fails, it continues to
increase the number of control points and attempts to fit
one surface between the selected groups of elements. It will
not try to automatically subdivide the elements.
The recommended complexity value is 5.
Tolerance
Choose a method to determine how closely the new surfaces adhere to
the underlying elements. The tolerance value is the maximum distance
by which the surface created differs from the selected elements at
any location. This is particularly important for curved meshes.
Mesh-Based Auto Tol
Calculate the tolerance based on the average element
size of the selected elements.
Tolerance
Manually specify a tolerance. A smaller tolerance
usually results in a larger number of surfaces
created.
Select the source shell elements used to generate surfaces.
Choose a method for selecting features (surface edges).
By default, features are automatically determined. Uncheck Auto
sharp features to manually specify 1D plot elements
(features).
1D plot elements must be selected to represent the edges of
the surfaces to be created. It is recommended to select a closed loop of
plot elements in order to best guide the algorithm. Features can be created
using the Features tool.
The algorithm used by this function tries to
subdivide shell elements into subsets if it does not succeed in creating a
single surface through the selected shell elements.
Define the following:
Split by comp components
Maintain boundaries between adjacent components, so that a single
mesh plane will still produce separate surfaces based on the
components that the elements belong to.
Associate nodes
Ensure that the mesh nodes are associated to the new corresponding
surfaces. This allows re-meshing of the surface to replace the
original mesh instead of creating a new overlaid mesh.
on the guide bar and define
the following options:
- Apply and stay in the tool
- Apply and close the tool
- Exit the tool without applying