Parameter Settings

Basic

Basic parameters include importing, outputting, and meshing.

Import Options

Import model with tolerance: Tolerance value to be used while importing the CAD model.; Select Auto (recommended) to automatically calculate the tolerance based on the type and dimensions of the model.

Output Options

Extract midsurfaces: Select the Extract midsurfaces checkbox to extract the midsurface before meshing using the selected extraction method. Only the midsurface geometry is meshed and the original geometry is deleted.
Note: Selecting this option activates the Midsurface settings.

Allow midmesh: Select the Allow midmesh checkbox to create a direct midmesh for the parts where midsurface extraction is difficult or not possible, such as plastics, castings and machined parts.
Note: Selecting this option activates the Midmesh settings.

Geometry cleanup: Select the Geometry cleanup checkbox to enable additional cleanup parameters that can be turned on and off independently.
Note: Selecting this option activates the Geometry Cleanup settings.

Create mesh: Selecting this option activates the Quality Correction tab on the left.

Mesh Options

Target element size: Desired element size for meshing and optimization.
Note: The element size defined here should match the ideal value for min length and max length as defined in the criteria file. If this does not match, BatchMesher may not be able to produce meshes that adhere to the target quality requirements.

Element type: Type of elements to create.

Element order: Create first or second order elements.

Element organization: Organize new elements in either the current component or the original surface's component(s).

Midsurface

Midsurface parameters define the tasks that are performed by BatchMesher when extracting the midsurface.

Method: Select method to use when extracting the midsurface before meshing.
Sheet metal only: Only consider geometry for midsurface extraction that meets the user defined settings for the options specific to sheet metal.
Note: If this option is disabled, it will result in a time savings, but all parts will be attempted to have a midsurface extracted.
Maximum thin solid thickness to width ratio: Maximum ratio between the approximate thickness of the thin solid part (shortest dimension) and its approximate width (2nd shortest dimension). This parameter is used to limit the midsurface extraction to parts for which the thickness is clearly smaller than the length and width.
Maximum thin solid thickness: Ignore thin solids with a thickness less than the specified value during midsurface extraction.
Minimum feature angle between the solid’s edge and its faces: Minimum angle used to distinguish top and bottom faces of a thin solid from its sides. Angles less than the specified value will be treated as if they were flat for purposes of midsurface extraction.
Pre-midsurface geometry cleanup: Perform geometry cleanup steps on the model before midsurface extraction.

Midmesh

Midmesh parameters define settings used to create the midmesh.

Extract element size: The element size used while creating (extracting) midmesh.
Ignore flat edges: Do not imprint flat edges from the input geometry onto the midmesh.
Flatten connections: Align/flatten the midmesh at ribs/connections.
Step offset mode: This option allows finer control of how stepped geometry (one side continuous surface, and opposite side steps) is captured. This option is valid only when flatten connections is enabled. Values can be:; Automatic – Steps of different thickness across a common base surface are automatically offset to a uniform distance from the base surface.; Middle everywhere – Each step will be placed in the middle everywhere.; Middle of thickest plate – All steps that share a common base are moved to the middle of the thickest step. This might place portions of the midmesh outside the solid.; Middle of thinnest plate – All steps that share a common base are moved to the middle of the thinnest step.
Figure 2.
Defeature openings with width <: Remove small holes and openings less than the specified width.
Suppress proximity edges factor: Remove 1D topology edges within the given factor of the minimum size from the criteria file.
Combine non-manifold edges factor: Join non-manifold edges within the given factor of the minimum size from the criteria file.

Defeature ribs width factor: The minimum size factor for removing small ribs. Ribs closer than this factor times minimum size will be suppressed. Default is 0.9.

Geometry Cleanup

Geometry Cleanup parameters define a variety of geometry feature recognition and preparation tasks performed by BatchMesher.

The main tools for geometry cleanup include:

Flat feature suppression level, a curvature based feature suppression.
Suppress edges by proximity, allows to handle feature edges in close proximity, generally based on minimum element size.

Controlling the above parameters can result in good feature capture with minimum quality index failures. However, features are given more importance which might increase the failed element count based on geometry and the cleanup parameter values. It is important to define all of the settings appropriately.

Edges

Equivalence tolerance

Tolerance to use for equivalencing (stitching) edges, in conjunction with the options below.

Auto: Calculate the tolerance internally.
<value>: Enter a tolerance. This is more useful when the auto tolerance is not sufficient to make all of the necessary connections.

Allow T-connections

Allow T-connections (non-manifold edges) to be created during the stitching process.

Within components only

Allow stitching only within components. Stitching between edges of different components is not allowed.

Surfaces

Delete duplicates

Define which duplicate surfaces to delete before meshing.

All: Consider all of the surfaces in all of the components against each other.
Within components only: Consider all surfaces within components only. Duplicate surfaces between components are not found.
None: Do not remove duplicate surfaces.

Tolerance

Define the tolerance used when finding duplicates.

All: Automatically calculate the tolerance from the model size and other relevant geometric parameters.
<value>: Enter a tolerance. This is more useful when the auto tolerance is not sufficient to find all of the duplicates.

Fix overlaps with tangency angle <

Fix overlapping surfaces.

Auto: Calculate the tangency angle internally.
<value>: Enter a maximal tangency angle to fix overlapped surfaces.

Figure 4. Overlapped Surfaces Tangency Angle	Figure 5. Overlapped Surfaces Fixed

Note: This option may remove the surfaces that should not be deleted. For example, it may happen to surfaces with T-connections. Setting the angle to < 45 may help reduce such side effects.

Component boundaries and feature edges

Preserve component boundaries

Do not suppress or remove components' boundary edges during geometry cleanup, and do not move elements nodes across the components' boundaries. In some cases, maintaining boundaries for adjacent components that do not have any structural meaning would significantly worsen the element quality results.

Suppress edges by proximity <

Suppress full or partial feature edges within the defined proximity value.

This option allows geometry cleanup to consider a minimum element size defined in the criteria file, which helps to avoid minimum size quality failures. You can choose to enter an absolute value for proximity, or you can choose to use the minimum element size or its factor.

When two or more feature edges come in proximity the following guidelines or rules are used in general to determine which feature edge gets suppressed to get more consistent and predictable results:

Full or partial feature edges within proximity are suppressed.

Figure 7.
Feature edges that have higher curvature values are retained.

Figure 8.
Boundary (free) edges are given priority.

Figure 9.
Base and top feature edges are given a priority while doing proximity cleanup for features like bead, bosses, and so on.

Figure 10.

Note: The proximity value is generally kept less than the minimum element size considering node movement tolerance.

Suppress sharp steps <

This option allows geometry cleanup to consider sharp steps if they are failing the defined minimum element size. You can enter an absolute value for proximity or you can use the minimum element size, or a factor.

Figure 11.

Note: Suppress edges by proximity does not allow you to suppress sharp steps in proximity unless this option is explicitly defined.

Flat feature suppression level

Suppresses feature edges based on curvature break angle. For the ease of use, you can select a curvature break angle range, which varies from very low to very high.

Choose different levels of suppression from very low to very high for more flexibility and control over capturing feature edges. very low suppression level corresponds to keeping maximum feature edges, while very high suppression level subjects the geometry to more feature edge suppression.

Note: The user defined and recognized features options are excluded from this suppression to enable you to capture and protect important features.

Figure 12. Flat feature suppression level: Very Low	Figure 13. Flat feature suppression level: Very High

Feature character size

The curvature break angle is calculated based on this setting.

Custom feature angle

Custom feature angle helps adjusts user-defined suppression level.

Note: Available when Flat feature suppression level is set to user defined.

Beads/Bosses

Geometry that represents beads on sheet metal parts is recognized.

Suppress beads: Heights <: Enable bead recognition and suppress any beads with a height less than the specified value. This helps eliminate small elements and aids in creating a good mesh flow.
Preserve rounded bead midline: If ON, the geometry trim at the peak will be created, suppressing other top feature lines and capturing bead with nodes at the peak.

Figure 14. Peak bead geometry captured with triangular pattern

Note: If bead has geometry trim line at the top close to medial position, that line could be used. If multiple trim lines are present, based on the proximity, one of the trim lines could be kept capturing peak of the bead.; If OFF, , the number of elements across the bead and the mesh pattern are auto selected based on an element's chordal deviation and permissible minimal element size. Based on these considerations, bead peak geometry can be captured with trapezoidal mesh pattern.

Figure 15.

Note: For sharp beads having medial geometry lines on the peak, mesh line on the peak is still maintained capturing its geometry though the original geometry trims might be suppressed.

Fillets

Recognize surface fillets and edge fillets.

Remove edge fillets with radius <

Square off any fillets/rounded edges located on free edges and having radii below the specified value. This helps to create a good mesh pattern in such areas. For concave fillets, this means material is removed. For convex fillets, this means material is added.

Surface fillet recognition

Recognize surface fillets in order to perform one or more of the following options:

Prevent the main (long) edges of the fillets from being suppressed, and also prevent the nodes of those edges from moving while fixing element quality.
Remove/defeature fillets. Gaps may result if complicated fillets cannot be removed.
Split the fillets along the mid-line and suppress the edges.
Specify the number of elements across the width of the fillets for given fillet radii. The width value is defined as the arc length of the fillet.
Specify the chordal deviation to be achieved while meshing.

A table becomes enabled to define a desired number of element rows for specific ranges of average fillet radii, width, or both. Add/remove element rows by clicking

(Add Row) and

(Remove Row).

Table 1. Surface Fillet Recognition Table Data
Column	Action
R>=	Minimum radius of the current fillet range.
R<	Maximum radius of the current fillet range.
W>=	Minimum width of the current fillet range.
Method	Method used to treat fillets, such as remove, split and suppress, and enforce rows.
Minimal Number of Rows	Number of elements across the width of the fillets for a given fillet radius.
Max Chordal Deviation	Chordal deviation to be achieved while meshing.

Uniform fillet strips with an average radius between 3 and 5 and an average width between 2.0 to 9.0 will be meshed with one row of elements; uniform fillet strips with an average radius between 5 and 20 and an average width between 9.0 to 16.0 will be meshed with two rows of elements; and uniform fillets strips with an average radius between 20 and 30 and an average width between 16.0 to 24.0 will be meshed with three rows of elements. This rule does not apply to fillets with an average element width below or above the defined ranges of non-uniform fillet strips (when minimal and maximal width of fillets exceed 30%).

If the width or number of rows columns in the surface fillet recognition table are empty, the next default value will be applied. In this example, that means uniform fillet strips with an average fillet width between the element sizes of 0 to 2.0 will be meshed with one row of elements.

A fillet can be meshed with enforced rows of elements, or split at its midline and meshed accordingly based on element quality.

Minimize transitions

Allows mesh settings to be defined as an exact number of rows when the checkbox is disabled.

This allows the Suppress tangency edges option to also become available. When enabled, fillets are treated by making a midline and suppressing the fillet itself. This combination may be selected to defeature very narrow fillets. Midline splitting without suppressing tangency edges can be used for wide fillets to ensure that the fillet mesh will be symmetrical. Enabling Minimize transitions helps to reduce trias. The mesh settings are then provided either as a minimum number of elements and/or determined based on a maximum chordal deviation criterion. BatchMesher calculates the required number of elements as the maximum of the user-specified number of rows and the number of elements required to meet the maximal chordal deviation.

Note: The minimal element size and aspect ratio criteria requirements are always honored. This means that the element quality restrictions have the highest priority when calculating the element density for a fillet range.

Flanges

Geometry that represents flanges on sheet metal parts is recognized.

Flange recognition

Flanges may be modified to suppress construction lines, subdivide them into rectangular areas, or otherwise prepare them for proper meshing. As this functionality is not supported for solid geometries, it should be disabled for such models to improve performance.

Elements across flange width

Minimum number of elements to be created across the flange width.

Maximum width of flange

Maximum flange width to consider for flange recognition.

Minimum width of flange

Minimum flange width to consider for flange recognition.

Delete flange narrow surfaces with width <

Controls the removal of narrow flange surfaces to avoid creation of sliver elements and disruptions in the mesh flow.

Auto: Delete narrow flange surfaces when the maximal narrow surface width is the minimum of 0.2*element_size and min_element_size.
<value>: Delete narrow flange surfaces when the maximal narrow surface width is the minimum of the specified value.

Figure 17. Flange Narrow Surface Width	Figure 18. Narrow Surface Removed

Holes 2D

Surface 2D holes are recognized and treated appropriately.

2D hole recognition

Surface holes of different sizes are recognized and treated appropriately.

Surface hole recognition table data

Define radii ranges and additional options in the table.

Add/remove rows and columns by clicking:

(Add Row),

(Remove Row),

(Add Column),

(Remove Column).

Table 2. Surface Hole Recognition Table Data
Column	Action
R<	Maximum radius of the current hole range. The minimum value is taken as 0.0 for the first row, or as the maximum value from the previous row. For slotted holes, the radius is measured at the tip of the hole.
Range	Radius range for the current row. This value is read-only.
Treatment	The manner in which you handle the following options: Seed Elements around hole Remove Removes the found hole Washer Creates washers around the hole Mark Creates a node and tag at center of hole
Target Radius	Adjust holes in the range to have the specified target radius. The radius can be specified as an exact value, for example 5.0, or as an expression based on the original radius, for example radius*1.1, radius-0.5, radius+0.5.
# Elems	Enter the minimum/exact number of elements to create around the holes, or set to auto to automatically select the number of elements so that the min and max element size requirements are satisfied, with the best possible representation of the hole shape. Tip: Auto is not recommended for holes with washer layers.
Elems Mode	Choose whether # Elems setting defines the minimum or exact number of elements.
1st Washer/2nd Washer/3rd Washer	Sets the width of the first, second, third washer as a constant value (select the blank entry in the drop down and enter a value), a scale of the hole radius, for example 0.6*radius, a subtraction formula, for example 14.0-radius, or an automatic determination based on element quality.
Priority	Set the priority of one radii range over the others. For example, to ensure all bolt holes (radii 10-15) have correct washers but other holes are not critical, holes with radii 10-15 will receive higher priority than others. This ensures that if two holes close to each other in the model have overlapping/conflicting washers, the hole with higher priority gets the washer while the other does not, or the hole with the lower priority may get a modified washer instead. In addition, when a hole is set to high priority, washer elements are not modified to correct for failed element quality. If a hole is set to normal priority, washer nodes are allowed to move to correct the quality.

Attempt to maintain narrow slot as

Rectangular ends – the slot ends are meshed to have rectangular ends.

Rounded ends – the slot ends are meshed using the pattern indicated in the following image.

Note: If this option is turned off, slot ends are meshed per the parameters defined in the hole table.

Add circumferential trim lines for washer

Keep geometry trim lines for washers.

Figure 22. Add circumferential trim lines for washer - Off	Figure 23. Add circumferential trim lines for washer - On

Suppress flanged holes with height <

Recognize holes with small downward flanges and eliminate those flanges with a height less than the specified value. Flanges with a height less than the minimal element size are extended to the minimal element size if not removed.

Use file for hole recognition

Specify additional files containing X, Y, Z center locations of all of the holes to consider.

Multiple files can be specified, each with their own definitions. The order of the files determines the order of precedence in the case where there are overlapping or conflicting definitions.

Click

(Add Table) to add a new table for creating a hole file. Click

(Delete Table) to delete the specified hole file table.

This is useful for special treatment of specific holes, usually bolt holes. BatchMesher compares the defined locations to the holes in the model, and prioritizes the holes that match. All of the options for Surface hole recognition are available for these holes. If one or more holes files are defined, BatchMesher looks for the found holes in each file, in the order the files are defined. If found, it applies the washer table linked to the first found file to the corresponding holes. If a hole is not found in any file, the settings from the default general surface holes table are used.

The holes file must contain one line for each hole, with the values either space, tab or comma separated. Each line contains a line number followed by the X, Y, Z locations of each hole center.

1 1420 -839 65
2 1724 -846 212
3 1683 -845 265
4 1660 -841 308

Figure 25. Spaces/Tabs with Line Numbers

1,1420,-839,65
2,1724,-846,212
3,1683,-845,265
4,1660,-841,308

Figure 26. Commas with Line Numbers

Holes 3D

Surface 2D holes are recognized and treated appropriately.

3D hole recognition

Surface holes of different sizes are recognized and treated appropriately. A table becomes enabled to define the radii ranges and additional options.

3D hole recognition table data

Define radii ranges and additional options in the table. Add/remove element rows by clicking

(Add Row) and

(Remove Row).

Table 3. 3D Hole Recognition Table Data
Column	Action
R<	Maximum radius of the current hole range. The minimum value is taken as 0.0 for the first row, or as the maximum value from the previous row.
Range	Radius range for the current row. This value is read-only.
Treatment	The manner in which you handle the following options: Seed Elements around hole Remove Removes the found hole Washer Creates washers around the hole Mark Creates a node and tag at center of hole
# Elems	Enter the minimum/exact number of elements to create around the holes, or set to auto to automatically select the number of elements so that the min and max element size requirements are satisfied, with the best possible representation of the hole shape. Tip: Auto is not recommended for holes with washer layers.

Logos

Use the Logo Recognition parameters to remove small geometric features that represent logos in the model design.

Remove logos: Recognize and remove small geometric features that represent logos.
Size <: Maximum size of a letter in the logo, as measured along/parallel to the "shiny" surface.
Height <: Maximum height/depth of a letter in the logo, as measured normal to the "shiny" surface.
Concavity factor: Creates a filter that provides more flexible control of automatic logo recognition. As this is a heuristic tool, it may remove real features, such as flat bottom round dimples, that were not intended for removal. The Concavity factor is a quantitative measure of a letters shape complexity, formally defined as:
$c o n c a v i t y_f a c t o r = \frac{c o n t o u r_a c c u m u l a t e d_t u r n_a n g l e}{360} - 1$
The contour_accumulated_turn_angle is the sum of angles between a letters contour straight parts. Curved parts of a contour letter are approximated by a segmented line composed of short straight segments. For completely concave contour, such as circles, quads, and hexagons, concavity factor contour_accumulated_turn_angle = 360 degrees and concavity factor = 0.
Tip: Extend the recognition and removal of a logo by reducing the Concavity factor.

Threads

Geometry that represents threads is recognized.

Remove threads

Recognizes and removes threads.

Depth <

Remove cylindrical or conical threads with a depth less than the specified value, and replaces them with a smooth cylinder or cone surface.

Replace removed threads with cylinder diameter

Method used to define the diameter of the replacing cylinder or cone.

autodecide: Automatically determine diameter based on the diameter of a blank before thread cutting begins.; For inner (hole) threads, it corresponds to the thread minor diameter. For outer (bold) threads, it corresponds to the thread major diameter.
major: Use diameter of the thread major.
mean: Use diameter of the thread mean.
minor: Use diameter of the thread minor.

Quality Correction Parameter

Used by BatchMesher to generate a mesh on the cleaned-up geometry.

BatchMesher has a powerful mesh flow algorithm which considers the shape of the geometry and aligns the mesh to create orthogonal meshes automatically. It also helps to reduce number of trias and places them strategically to avoid bad mesh patterns. BatchMesher is able to control the average element size in order to generate a more uniform mesh.

These parameters control the behavior of the post-mesh element cleanup operations. They are intended to fix elements failing the quality criteria, to reduce number of tria elements for mixed/quad meshes, to correct bad mesh patterns, and to fix mesh flow for fillets. All of the element cleanup operations are compliant with the quality criteria, in that they should improve or at least not worsen the mesh quality.

All element cleanup behaviors are based either on nodal movement (smoothing), changing element connectivity (collapsing, splitting, and so on) or local remeshing.

Node movement

Move across shared edges <=: Define the maximum distance to move nodes across shared edges to correct the quality.

Move across free edges <=: Define the maximum distance to move nodes outside of free edges to correct the quality.

Move across non-manifold edges <=: Move nodes away from the geometry's non-manifold edges by less than the specified distance. Applies only to Rebuild Mesh.

Offset from surfaces <=: Move nodes off the geometry to correct warped elements.

Keep on edges for free round holes with <=

Do not allow any nodes to move off the edges of free holes (without washers) with less than a specified number of elements. This is useful if distortion of the holes is not allowed.

Figure 29. Keep Nodes on Edges for Free Round Holes with <= On	Figure 30. Keep Nodes on Edges for Free Round Holes with <= Off

Allow to move on plateau feature top edges

Plateau feature top edge nodes are allowed to move to fix the failed elements.

Figure 32. Allow Nodes to Move on Plateau Feature Top Edges = On	Figure 33. Allow Nodes to Move on Plateau Feature Top Edges = Off

Correct warped elements

Divide quads into trias: Split quads into trias to meet the element criteria defined in the criteria file.

Element cleanup settings

Feature angle: Element feature angle to maintain while performing element cleanup.
Folding angle: Elements whose angle exceeds this value are considered folded over, and BatchMesher attempts to clean them up.

Special Components

The Special component selection parameters define a method for selecting special components.

Special component selection

Enable special component selection.

Selected components treatment

Provides options for meshing.

Mesh without geometry cleanup

Mesh the listed components but will not perform any geometry cleanup on them before meshing. Any remaining components that are not listed will be batch meshed using the normal process, including geometry cleanup.

This is useful for models in which some components do not require geometry cleanup but the rest might. Models in which no components require cleanup can be batch meshed with the Geometry Cleanup checkbox turned off.

Mesh and keep connectivity

Mesh the listed components while maintaining connectivity to any existing mesh.

This is useful when components are to be meshed with multiple element sizes but transitions at the common edges of the different sizes are required. Each component should be meshed individually with its own parameter and criteria files with this option enabled.

Ignore and keep connectivity

Ignore the listed components while maintaining connectivity to any existing mesh. The mesh and geometry of the ignored components are not touched during batch meshing. The mesh created on other adjacent components is connected to any existing mesh on the ignored components.

This is useful for batch meshing of different components with different criteria/parameters files, or when pre-meshing components interactively or with some other procedure, followed by batch meshing of other components.

Selected components

A table becomes enabled to specify special components. Add/remove components by clicking

(Add Row) and

(Remove Row). In the Name field, enter component name.

As an example, a model may have two components named front_10 and rear_20, which share common surface edges. The component front_10 is to be meshed with element size 10 and rear_20 with element size 20. This can be accomplished as follows:

Create two sets of parameter/criteria files.
- The first should have a target element size of 10 and the appropriate parameters. In this parameter file, turn on the Special component selection option, Mesh and keep connectivity sub-option, and add front_10 to the component list.
- The second file should have a target element size of 20 and the appropriate parameters. In this parameter file, turn on the Special component selection option, Mesh and keep connectivity sub-option, and add rear_20 in the component list.
Create a mesh type and assign the first set of criteria and parameter files.
Create a second mesh type with the same name as the first, and assign the second set of criteria and parameter files.
Choose the geometry file to be batch meshed, assigning it the mesh type from above, and submit the job.

This will mesh front_10 first with the first mesh type, and then take the results of this and mesh rear_20 with the second mesh type, while maintaining connectivity with the mesh created on front_10.