QA/Model Utility Menu
The QA Utility menu contains many tools to help you quickly review and clean up the quality of a pre-existing mesh.
The element quality criteria used by these tools comes directly from the values entered on the Check Elements panel. Since the criteria on that panel are customizable, the quality criteria used by these macros remains consistent with those used throughout the rest of Engineering Solutions and can be indirectly adjusted by changing the settings on the Check Elements panel.
There are eight tools to isolate elements that fail certain element check
criteria:
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| Length | This macro checks all the displayed elements against the minimum length criteria. If any elements fail the criteria, it displays the failed elements and masks the remaining elements. If none of the displayed elements fail the criteria, it displays a message and leaves the model display unchanged. |
| Jacob (Jacobian) | This macro checks all the displayed elements against the maximum Jacobian value. If any elements fail the criteria, it displays the failed elements and masks the remaining elements. If none of the displayed elements fail the criteria, it displays a message and leaves the display unchanged. |
| Warp (warpage) | This macro checks all the displayed elements for their warpage. If any elements fail the warpage test, it displays the failed elements and masks the remaining elements. If none of the displayed elements fail the criteria, it displays a message and leaves the display unchanged. |
| Aspect (aspect ratio) | This macro checks all the displayed elements for their aspect ratio. If any elements fail the criteria, it displays the failed elements and masks the remaining elements. If none of the displayed elements fail the criteria, it displays a message and leaves the display unchanged. |
| Max ang: Q (quad) | This macro checks all the displayed quad elements against the maximum internal angle. If any elements fail the criteria, it displays the failed elements and masks the remaining elements. If none of the displayed elements fail the criteria, it displays a message and leaves the display unchanged. |
| Max ang: T (tria) | This macro checks all the displayed tria elements against the maximum internal angle. If any elements fail the criteria, it displays the failed elements and masks the remaining elements. If none of the displayed elements fail the criteria, it displays a message and leaves the display unchanged. |
| Min ang: Q (quad) | This macro checks all the displayed quad elements against the minimum internal angle. If any elements fail the criteria, it displays the failed elements and masks the remaining elements. If none of the displayed elements fail the criteria, it displays a message and leaves the display unchanged. |
| Min ang: T (tria) | This macro checks all the displayed tria elements against the minimum internal angle. If any elements fail the criteria, it displays the failed elements and masks the remaining elements. If none of the displayed elements fail the criteria, it displays a message and leaves the display unchanged. |
You can use the following macros to quickly modify any elements that fail the element
checks.
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| Split Warped | Checks all displayed quad elements for warp exceeding the acceptable value. Each element failing this criterion is then split along its diagonal to form two tria elements instead of the original quad. |
| Find Attached | Finds all elements attached to displayed elements. Attached elements are those that are physically attached to each other via common nodes. |
| Find Attached (Tied) | Finds all elements tied to displayed elements. Tied elements are those that are tied to each other, but are not attached physically. See Find Attached (Tied). |
| Remesh | Remeshes the selected elements plus one, two, or three attached layers of elements (one button for each). The remesh uses the current size, does not break connectivity, and uses the mixed element type. |
| Smooth | Applies the smoothing algorithm to the selected elements plus one, two, or three attached layers of elements (one button for each). |
| Quality Report | Brings up a user interface, from which you can set the
various quality values and check the quality of all the 2D
elements in the model. The results are shown as the number of
elements and percentage of elements failing each criterion. You
can also export the results to a text file using save
as. Note: Changing the criteria on this report interface does
not change the settings in the Check Elements panel. They
only affect the report.
|
| Model Tour | Opens a macro, from which you can review the selected components individually. This macro displays the component name, number of elements in that component and their ID range. It also displays a dialog from which you can review the free edges of the component and any elements attached to the component. |
| BOM Comparison Tool | Reads a generic Bill Of Materials file and provides an interface to manipulate data in the BOM as well as the corresponding FE model. |
The model tools included on this page are:
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| Load Size | These numbered buttons represent different display sizes for
load indicators: 0 is the smallest, while 3 is the largest.
Since these buttons affect all loads, including forces,
pressures, constraints, and so on, the numbers do not directly
correspond to any specific values or ratios. Note: This only
affects the graphical display of load indicators. It does
not change the load magnitudes.
|
| Find Elems >> Loads | Automatically finds all elements directly attached to any and all load indicators. If masked, these elements are unmasked. |
| Find Comps >> Loads | Automatically finds all components directly attached to any and all load indicators. If masked, these comps are unmasked. |
| Find Loads >> Comps | Automatically finds all loads directly attached to a selected component. If masked, these loads are unmasked. |
| Find Elems >> Connectors | Automatically finds all elements directly attached to any and all connectors. If masked, these elements are un-masked. |