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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.
Morphing
Rapidly change the shape of the FE mesh without severely sacrificing the mesh quality.
Shapes
Shapes are collections of perturbations from the initial configuration of the FE mesh before the morph.

Welcome
What's New
View new features for HyperMesh CFD 2026.
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 Repair
Manage CAD, FE, and 2D parametric sketch geometry.
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.
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.
- Morphing
  Rapidly change the shape of the FE mesh without severely sacrificing the mesh quality.
  - Volumes
  - Control Points
  - Morph
    Rapidly change the shape of the FE mesh without severely sacrificing the mesh quality.
  - Shapes
    Shapes are collections of perturbations from the initial configuration of the FE mesh before the morph.
    - Create Shapes
      Create and apply morphing shapes. Shapes can be created by morphing or by converting load collectors.
    - Delete Shapes
      Delete selected shapes.
    - Record Node Movements
      Record node movements using other HyperMesh CFD tools and save them as a shape.
    - Animate Shapes
      Animate selected shapes.
    - Convert Shapes
      Convert a shape to node perturbations, handle perturbations, an mvol shape, forces, temperatures, pressures, or displacements.
    - Check or Smooth Shapes
      Use the Check/Smooth function to check the element quality of shape combinations and optionally smooth the shapes to improve the element quality when applied individually or as part of a combination of shapes.
    - Automatically Generate Shapes
      Use the Autoshape function to automatically generate multiple shapes for individual handles or domains.
    - Import Shapes
      Import saved shapes from a file.
    - Export Shapes
      Export selected shapes.
    - Optimize Shapes
      Use the Design Variable options to automatically generate optimization variables. These variables can then be used to optimize the surface of the part with respect to the given shapes.
  - DOE Studies
    Once morphing is done, you can create shapes and design variables and submit DOE studies. The DOE study tool can be used for shape and CAD parameter DOEs, and for Automation. The purpose of this tool is to provide automation files so you can manually modify them and carry out DOEs.
  - Morph Definitions and Dialog Options
- PhysicsAI
Automation
Automate simulation processes with templates and utility scripts.
Solver Help
More resources for AcuSolve and ultraFluidX solvers.

View All Altair HyperWorks Help

Shapes

Shapes are collections of perturbations from the initial configuration of the FE mesh before the morph.

Figure 1.

The left side of Figure 1 depicts a shape drawn as a transparent mesh on screen while the right side shows a shape in Review mode (keyboard shortcut Q).

When you morph your model, HyperMesh CFD stores the morph internally as a collection of perturbations which you can then undo or redo. When you create a shape using the Shapes tool, the node perturbations are stored in the new shape entity along with biasing factors for the perturbations and details such as the biasing style. HyperMesh CFD takes the difference between the initial state of the model and the current state of the model when creating a new shape. Creating shapes allows you to generate shape variables for optimization and store model changes for parametric studies.

When you create a shape, a transparent mesh is drawn, which corresponds to the perturbation of each node associated with that shape. The transparent mesh signifies the position of each node after applying the shape.

Any nodes that move less than 5% with respect to the maximum node movement associated with that shape will not be drawn on screen as transparent mesh. This is done to focus the shape visualization on the moving nodes and to increase performance for shapes that encompass the whole model (for example, morphing with kriging, volume morphing).

Once a shape is saved, you can apply it to your model with any given scaling factor. Applying a shape in this way is like any other morphing operation and can be undone, redone, or saved as part of another shape.