Cartesian Hex Mesh

Mesh > 3D Create > Hex > By Body Type > Cartesian

Description

In cartesian mesh, all elements are bricks with equal/unequal size (isotropic/anisotropic), and edges are parallel to the XYZ cartesian axes.

It is used to quickly discretize the geometry, similar to voxel mesh, where the geometry is not captured exactly.

The input can be either CAD or FE bodies.

Mesh Type

  • Isotropic

    The average mesh size along XYZ direction is defined using single mesh size.

  • Anisotropic

    The average mesh size in XYZ direction is specified using mesh size in X, Y, Z.

Collapse grid lines lesser than

Collapse grid lines lesser than is used to collapse consecutive grid lines lesser than specified values. The distance between each consecutive grid line is considered and if its value is lesser than this specified value, one grid line (belongs to minimum coordinate) will be retained and other will be removed.

Preserve faces parallel to XY YZ ZX

Based on the selected combination of XY YZ ZX planes, the shape of the planar faces in the input bodies parallel to global XY YZ ZX planes are retained in the output mesh if only if the specified “Collapse grid line lesser than” value is satisfied.

Key Planes

Key planes are used to capture the planar geometry better by means of creating hard planes on planar faces aligned parallel with any one of the global axis. It is created using Mesh | Controls | Mesh Planes.

Overlapping Volumes

When the input bodies have volume overlap, i.e., point in space belongs to more than one closed bodies, then the priority of the bodies is defined as given below,

  • If all the bodies are selected from a model as input, then the order in which the bodies are

    displayed in the model browser dictates the priority. Using Model Browser > Body > Right click >

    Move Up/Down, the body could be re-positioned to set the appropriate priority.

  • If few bodies are selected from a model as input, then the order in which the bodies are selected

    dictates the priority.

Example

Big_Box and Cylinder have volume overlaps and Small_Box is completely inside Big_Box

and the order in the model browser is shown.

If all the bodies are given as input, then the Cartesian mesh would be generated without the small box.

Also, the cylinder would be trimmed.

If the order in the model browser is updated such that the Small_Box is above the Big_Box, then the

Cartesian mesh would be generated with the small box.