Use the Automeshing Secondary panel to create meshes interactively on surfaces, or even without a surface present. It serves as the unified secondary panel for most of the plate and shell meshing panels; using those panels gives you access to this Automeshing Secondary panel. In the Automeshing Secondary panel you can interactively adjust a wide variety of parameters and choose from a suite of algorithms. HyperMesh responds with immediate feedback on the effects of the changes, until you are satisfied with the resulting mesh.
There are two approaches to automatic mesh generation, depending on whether or not you use surfaces as the basis for the operation.
• | If you use surfaces, you may choose from a greater variety of algorithms, have more flexibility in specifying the algorithm parameters, and employ the mesh-smoothing operation to improve element quality. |
• | If you do not use surfaces, the meshing process is usually faster and uses less memory. Most of the functions are still available and operate in the same way. Furthermore, there are situations in which it is not possible or not desirable to create a surface. |
For either approach, the panel operates the same. You control interactively the number of elements on each edge or side, and can determine immediately the nodes that are used to create the mesh. You can adjust the node biasing on each edge to force more elements to be created near one end than near the other, which allows you to immediately see the locations of the new nodes. You can also specify whether the new elements should be quads, trias, or mixed and whether they should be first or second order elements. The created mesh can be previewed, allowing you to evaluate it for element quality before choosing to store it in the database. While you are in the meshing module, you can use any of viewing tools on the visual options menu to simplify the visualization of complex structures in your model.
A solid model created by dragging automeshed plate elements. |
The Automesh Secondary panel can make second order elements for boundary element solutions. |
This panel shows the pre-generated mesh from its preceding Automesh subpanel, and provides tools to adjust the mesh before finalizing it.
While you are using the Automeshing Secondary panel, the function keys are disabled and you cannot change the element order on the Options panel.
As a secondary panel dependent on the subpanel that activates it, the changes you make are only applicable to the current meshing action. Leaving the secondary panel will render its settings irrelevant since the only means of return is to restart meshing from one of the Automesh subpanels.
• | Set the secondary panel mode by selecting the appropriate subpanel |
• | Use the criteria presented by the subpanel to alter the final mesh outcome |
• | Click the mesh button to finalize the mesh, reject to abort, or smooth to automatically improve the mesh quality. |
The Automeshing Secondary panel contains the following subpanels and command buttons:
Use the density subpanel to change the node density along a specified edge or edges.
Panel Inputs
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Use the Mesh Style subpanel to specify the meshing algorithm to use for each face of each domain when you are following a surface-based approach. The shape of the icon on each face identifies the algorithm that has been specified for that face. This subpanel lets you change the mesh style (quads, trias, mixed) for individual, specific surfaces.
Panel Inputs
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Use the Biasing subpanel to apply linear, exponential, or bellcurve biasing to individual edges of a surface.
Panel Inputs
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Use the Checks subpanel to use the functions of the Check Elements panel on a newly-generated mesh before storing it in the database. The tests are the same as on the Check Elements panel, and elements that fail a quality test are highlighted in red. Only displayed elements are tested; the display of elements is controlled by the local view panel. The Checks subpanel operates on a by-face method. The active highlighted face serves as a frame of reference for meshing, smoothing, and display operations. To select another face, select the face’s icon in the graphics area. In this subpanel, you can specify minimum or maximum values for element quality criteria according to several measures. The final mesh will attempt to adhere to the requirements set on this panel by producing elements that do not violate these quality criteria. The criteria includes warpage, aspect, skew, min angle and max angle (quads only), length, jacobian, and min angle/max angle (trias only). This subpanel also includes a button to access the local view dialog.
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The following action buttons appear throughout the subpanels:
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