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Note that the hexa mesh requires more effort and time than the tetra mesh. Both of them though
will familiarize you with many ANSA functionalities.
3.1.2. Prerequisites
Reading the 4 pages of section Intro.2.1. Getting Started of this Guide is recommended in order to
obtain a familiarization with the ANSA interface and terminology. It is also suggested to have
performed Tutorial 1.
3.1.3. Problem description
The geometry of the component is shown below:
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Activate SHADOW
display mode and rotate
the part to view it better.
SHADOW
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MESH >
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FREE
Visible
algorithm.
All Macro Areas are meshed as reported in the Text Window. The number of generated elements is
displayed at the bottom left of the screen.
To perform the quality check
HIDDEN
switch to HIDDEN view mode by
activating the respective flag.
Elements that violate skewness quality criterion
are colored in green according to the legend on
the right. The number of visible violating
elements, 29 in this case, is shown on the left
under OFF.
Note that the number of generated and OFF
elements may vary slightly between different
machines due to round off. As a result the
following steps of shell mesh improvement may
have to be performed in different areas.
The improvement of the mesh will be made in two steps. The first and most important consists of
the improvement of the shape of the Macro Areas, the application of different meshing algorithms,
and the adjustment of the nodal number of selected Perimeter Segments. These actions will
eliminate most of the problematic elements.
The second step will consist of movement of nodes on the CAD geometry, and element splitting in
order to improve the quality of the remaining violating elements.
Zoom in to the location
shown in the small
image.
You can see a very
narrow Macro Area with
highly skewed elements.
Activate the MACROs>JOIN
function and select with left
mouse button the Perimeter Segment shown.
JOIN
Note that to retrieve a Perimeter Segment, that was joined unintentionally, activate the
MACROs>RELEASE function and select it among the previewed Segments with the left mouse
button.
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GRADUAL
Visible
algorithm.
! Note that from version 11.3.0 the [ReGenerate] option is available in all meshing
functions and there is no need to erase the
current mesh to try a different algorithm (see
Users Guide section 9.4.2.).
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RE-MESH
Visible
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ALL
back.
F9
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2
1
2
(Note that you can paste more than one nodes
to another. All the selected nodes are pasted to
the last selected one. Hence you could perform
the above two-step operation in a single one.)
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Notes
You should always aim to produce a good quality mesh by shaping properly the Macro Areas, using
the most suitable meshing algorithm and adjusting the Perimeter element length or number. This is
the faster way and it also assures that if the mesh is erased for some reason, a simple remesh
operation will bring it back exactly as it was. On the contrary, corrections that were made using
manual nodal movements and element splitting are not retrieved during remeshing.
The powerful Reconstruction algorithm, available from ANSA version 11.3.0, can be used during or
after the mesh generation to correct most of the problems that were resolved manually in this
section, thus saving time in model creation. See the ANSA Users Guide section 9.4.4. for details
on the use of Reconstruction.
without Reconstruction
with Reconstruction
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SHADOW
mesh.
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Distribution of shell
skewness (absolute and
percentage)
ID of tria shell with worst
skewness (note down this
ID, see next page)
ID of best and worst
element with respect to
skewness.
Distribution of solid
skewness (absolute and
percentage)
Press the SAVE AS button
to save the info to a text
file or press ESC to exit.
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F11
exit.
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MACROs
visible.
WIRE
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The volume decomposition must be made always with the scope that:
- The Volume MAP algorithm requires two opposite sets of Macros (master and slave), with
compatible shell mesh, and that all the bounding guiding sets of Macros, which close the volume
and define the extrusion direction, are meshed with quad mapped mesh only. Careful Perimeter
nodal alignment will be required to satisfy this requirement.
- To achieve solid mesh continuity, the created interior Faces, and hence Macros, must belong to
both adjacent Volumes.
- The blocks must have ideally orthogonal corners, so that the generated hexas are of good quality.
The image below describes the volume decomposition that will be performed in order to generate
the hexa mesh. Five sub-volumes will be created and meshed separately. The extrusion directions
are displayed by an arrow, indicating which surfaces will be master and slave sets and which will be
guiding sets.
volume1
volume4
volume5
volume2
volume3
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ENT ..
Note in the following steps the SHADOW mode is active for clarity. You can however proceed
without it, if you prefer so.
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2
1
2
1
PID ..
Note that these were not all the Faces that form volume3. In a later step, it will be easier to add the
remaining Faces to this PID.
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LOCK
selection.
LOCK
OR
interest.
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2
1
Activate the
CONS>PROJECT
NORMAL [NORMAL] function and
select with the left mouse
button the 3D Curve.
PROJECT
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1
2
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1
2
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ENT ..
LOCK
selection.
LOCK
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ENT ..
LOCK
selection.
LOCK
1
2
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CUT
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CURVEs
them.
Perform appropriate NOT
operations in ENT mode to keep
only the Faces that will be merged to PID3 as
they also belong to volume3.
NOT
OR
PID mode.
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LOCK
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2
3
1
4
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OR
2
3
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OR
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2
1
3
4
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ALL
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3
4
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Macro with
PID 100
visible entities.
You will focus initially on the region near the
hole which is more complicated for a map mesh.
First define the locations where you will cut the
Macros to separate the region around the hole.
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CROSH
SHADOW
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1
2
De-select with right mouse button if required
and confirm with middle mouse button.
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PRJ-CUT
3
Press ESC to exit the function.
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12
12
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6
6
2
1
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38
19
CUT
Cut
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6
6
6
6
5
MAP
Visible
algorithm.
ALL
LOCK
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OR
DELETE
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13
13
CUT
1
Cut
NUMBER
NUMBER
MAP
Visible
algorithm.
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SHADOW
DELETE
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NUMBER
NUMBER
6
6
4
2
3
4
MAP
Visible
algorithm.
All Macros are meshed except one as reported
in the Text Window.
This Macro was not shaped properly for Map
quad mesh on purpose, so that it can be
demonstrated later that it can be meshed
automatically during Volume meshing.
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NUMBER
MAP
Visible
ALL
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DELETE
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CUT
Cut
NUMBER
CUT
Prj-Cut
3
4
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CUT
Cut
NUMBER
NUMBER
5
5
5
5
5
5
2
2
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CUT
Cut
NUMBER
6
6
6
6
6
6
NUMBER
3
5
5
5
4
4
4
3
3
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CUT
Cut
NUMBER
5
8
MAP
Visible
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12
12
12
12
12
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8
9
9
9
9
NUMBER
3
3
NUMBER
6
6
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Press the UNMESHED [MACROS] button of the FOCUS group to check if there are any unmeshed
Macro Areas. There should only be one unmeshed Macro, left like that intentionally as described in
page 2-67. If it is not a problem of other unmeshed Macros, examine the part to identify the
Perimeters with the wrong nodal number and correct them.
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The Properties window appears to assign a PID to the generated hexas. As no solid PID exists in
the database, press the NEW button to create a new one.
A new Solid Property card appears. Type in the
name "solids" in the top field.
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MACROs
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master set
slave set
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