Mesh Utility Menu

The CFD Mesh tab on the Utility menu provides shortcuts to commonly used panels and to specific tasks used for CFD analysis and optimization.

Import Data

The Import tab allows a quick method of importing files of different types. To import a CFD file, click the Import icon to open the Import tab. Select the Import Solver Deck icon , set the File type field to CFD and select your solver type. Then use the File field to browse for the file to open.

The Utility menu provides the following methods for opening CAD and .hm files.
CAD
Opens the Import tab with options selected to import a geometry file.
HM
Opens the Import tab with options selected to import an .hm file.

Components

Create
Opens the create subpanel on the Collectors panel.
Delete
Opens the Delete panel, where you can delete model entities.
Merge
Merges the selected components. You have the option to merge all of the selected components in one component or merge components based on connectivity.
It is useful to combine/organize components for meshing or analysis.
Disconnect
Disconnects the selected components based on the connectivity of the mesh. This is very useful when you have a stl model where all components are merged to one.
Bounding Box
Creates a bounding box around the selected entities. By default it will fit according to the displayed entities. You can define the dimension of the box (length, width, height), change the center and refinement size. There is also an option to split bounding box sides and put them in a separate component.

Cleanup

Hole/Gap Fill
Mesh holes, gaps and patches.
Autocleanup
Opens the Autocleanup panel; helps you to prepare geometry for meshing.
Edge Edit
Opens the Edge Edit panel, where you can modify surface edges.
Quick Edit
Opens the Quick Geometry Edit panel that has tools for rapid changes to model geometry.
Point Edit
Opens the Point Edit panel, where you can perform point-related geometry cleanup tasks.

Surface

Surf Create
Opens the Surfaces panel, which is used to create several types of surfaces.
Surf Edit
Opens the Surface Edit panel, which is used to perform several tasks on surfaces, such as trimming, extending and shrinking.
Spline From Bound Nodes
This utility is used when you need to mesh a surface defined by the boundary nodes alone and the mesh needs to have exactly the same boundary nodes as the existing nodes that define its boundary. When creating a mesh and surface with nodes they are automatically stitched to the new surface/mesh by default.
Spline - Bound Nodes File
Same usage as Spline From Bound Nodes except that in this case, the boundary nodes are read from a file. The file is a regular text file with a single number on the first line indicating the number of lines with nodal coordinates X Y (Z) that follow. The Z value is optional.

Lines

Create
Opens the Lines panel, which is used to create lines with several options.
Edit
Opens the Line Edit panel, which is used to perform several editing tasks such as combining, splitting, smoothing and extending lines.

Generate Mesh

Surface
Opens the Automesh panel. This panel is used to automatically mesh surfaces, using many available meshing options.
Volume
Opens the Boundary selection subpanel on the CFD Tetramesh panel. This panel is used to generate hybrid meshes with or without boundary layers. Several options are available for boundary layer and core meshing.
Hex-core
Opens the Hex-core tab utility.
Pyramids
Opens the Pyramids tab utility.
Generate 2D BL Mesh
Generate 2D meshes with or without boundary layers on planar sections defined by sets/groups of edges that define closed loops. A region is considered closed if it is entirely bounded by edge elements (edge elements should be of type PLOTEL). Element configurations generated by this utility are linear quadrilateral (quad4) and triangular (tria3).
Wind Tunnel Mesh
Opens the Wind Tunnel Mesh tab utility.
Generate BL Thickness
Opens the Generate Boundary Layer Thickness dialog.
First Cell Height
Computes the height of the cell closest to the wall.

Check Quality

2D
Opens the Check Elements: 2D panel.
3D
Opens the Check Elements: 3D panel.

Generate BC Areas

Faces
Opens the Faces panel. This panel is used to generate the bounding or exterior surface elements (^faces collector) that will be used to define surface zones for the different boundary conditions.
Organize
Opens the Organize panel. This panel is used to organize many entities and it is useful to move elements from the ^faces collector to the collectors used to group elements that define zones to impose boundary conditions.

CFD Components

CFD Components
Functionality to define the standard CFD collectors. In the dialog, the commonly used collectors names, such as Inflow, are pre-selected. Components can be added or removed from the list and a multiplier for each component can be defined. By clicking Create the selected components are created and appear in the Model Browser.