Constructing meshes

Construction of a mesh consists of:

• Selecting a geometrical object for meshing

• Applying meshing algorithms and hypotheses which will be used at computation of this mesh.

To construct a mesh:

1. In the Mesh menu select Create Mesh or click button in the toolbar. The following dialog box will appear:

2. For example, you need to mesh a 3d object.

First, type the name for your mesh in the "Name" box, by default, it is "Mesh_1". Then select the object you wish to mesh in the Object Browser and click the "Add" button.

Now you can define 1d Algorithm and 1d Hypotheses, which will be applied to the edges of your object. (Note that any object has edges, even if their existence is not apparent, for example, a sphere has 4 edges). Click the   button to add a hypothesis. Click the button to define values for the current hypothesis. The use of additional hypotheses is optional (i.e. you may leave "None" in this box).   

Proceed in the same way with 2d and 3d Algorithms and Hypotheses, note that the choice of hypotheses depends on the algorithm. There must be one Algorithm and one or several Hypotheses for each dimension of your object, otherwise you will not get any mesh at all. Of course, if you wish to mesh a face, which is a 2d object, you don't need to define 3d Algorithm and Hypotheses.

In the Object Browser the structure of the new mesh will be displayed as follows:

It contains:

• a reference to the geometrical object on the basis of which the mesh has been constructed;

• Applied hypotheses folder containing the references to the hypotheses applied to the construction of the mesh;

• Applied algorithms folder containing the references to the algorithms applied to the construction of the mesh.

There is an alternative way to create a mesh on an object simply by clicking Assign a set of hypotheses button and selecting between Automatic Tetrahedralization or Hexahedralization.  The program will automatically generate a 3D mesh with the most appropriate settings. In the same way you can apply this functionality for meshing 2D objects, in which case 3D algorithms are not applied.

3. Now, when everything is ready, select your mesh in the Object Browser.  From the Mesh menu select Compute or click button of the toolbar.

If you've done everything right, you'll obtain something like this.

Consider trying a sample script for construction of a mesh from our TUI Scripts section.