Home
Geometry Modeling
Manage CAD, FE, and 2D parametric sketch geometry.
Discrete Geometry
Work with discrete geometry like FE Geometry and floating elements.
Fix Normals
Use the Normals tool to fix element normals using different methods.

Welcome
What's New
View new features for HyperMesh CFD 2024.1.
Get Started
Learn the basics and discover the workspace.
Onboarding Resources
Discover HyperMesh CFD functionality with interactive tutorials and community resources.
Solution Layers
Solution-centric workflows allow you to traverse through modeling environments using a dedicated UI layer.
Manage Files and Data
Create, open, import, and save models.
Convert
Use the Convert tool to convert entire models between data types.
Geometry Modeling
Manage CAD, FE, and 2D parametric sketch geometry.
- Sketching
  Create and edit 2D parametric sketch geometry.
- Geometry
  Create, edit, and cleanup geometry.
- Discrete Geometry
  Work with discrete geometry like FE Geometry and floating elements.
  - Cap Holes and Fill Gaps
    Use the Cap tools to close openings and gaps between parts/surfaces.
  - Connect Geometry
    Use the Connect tools to trim, fuse, and stitch your discrete geometry.
  - Enclosure
    In CFD modeling, input parts can have topology issues, like free surfaces and self-intersections, and part assembly issues, such as parts with very close proximity and intersecting parts. Manually connecting these parts can be time consuming and require expertise in certain tools. The Enclosure tool can generate a watertight manifold model from dirty input with considerably less manual work.
  - Remesh Tessellated Models
    Use the Remesh to create new surface mesh on converted geometry.
  - Smooth Mesh
    Use the Smooth tool to optimize the mesh quality of parts or surfaces.
  - Refine Mesh
    Use the Refine tool to split elements and optimize the mesh quality of parts and surfaces.
  - Decimate Mesh
    Use the Decimate tool to coarsen mesh based on a defined element size.
  - Create Derived Regions
    Use the Derived Region tool to create enclosed and offset regions around a selection – which can be used to define volumetric refinement levels – or create projected regions in a given direction.
  - Convert Elements and Update FE Geometry
    Convert elements that aren't associated with geometry into FE geometry, or update existing FE geometry.
  - Organize Entities
    Use the Organize tool to move or copy entities into their proper destinations.
  - Repair Surface Mesh
    Use the Repair tool to find, review, and fix issues in the mesh.
  - Automatically Fix Mesh Quality
    The Auto Fix tool is useful for cleaning up non-manifold edges, free edges, intersections, high aspect ratio elements, and proximity distance.
  - Edit 2D Surface Mesh Elements
    Use the Edit tools to manually improve the quality of surface mesh elements and nodes.
  - Fix Normals
    Use the Normals tool to fix element normals using different methods.
- Model Build and Assembly
  Create, organize and manage parts and subsystems.
Meshing
Generate surface/volume mesh by defining mesh controls, or interactively create and edit 2D surface mesh.
Setup
Prepare your model and run the simulation.
Post-Processing
Post-process the simulation results by creating visualizations and measurements.
Automation
Automate simulation processes with templates and utility scripts.
Design Exploration
Once the baseline model is prepared, you can define morph volumes, morph geometry, create design shapes and run DOE studies. These tool work for both AcuSolve and ultraFluidX-based workflows.
Solver Help
More resources for AcuSolve and ultraFluidX solvers.

View All Altair HyperWorks Help

Fix Normals

Use the Normals tool to fix element normals using different methods.

From the View Controls toolbar, set the model color to Surface Normals to see the existing normals.

Figure 1.
From the Discrete ribbon, click the Normals tool.

Figure 2.
Select parts or surfaces that form a closed volume.
Select elements if needed for the By Connectivity fix method.

Define a fix method.

By Ray Tracing - This option works best if the input almost forms a closed volume (irrespective if all shells have conformal connectivity or not) and many element patches have inconsistent normals.
- Define Minimum gap size: This method creates voxels and shoots rays to fix normals. In order to get the best results, define this value in accordance with the smallest gap in the model.

By Connectivity - Use this option to fix normals on few remaining elements. For this method, it is not required that the input forms a closed volume.

Update - This option updates normals of a few inconsistent elements considering connected elements have mostly consistent normals.

Figure 3. Input

Figure 4. Output with Update option

Reverse - This options reverses the normals of your selection.

Click Fix.