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.
- 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.
- 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.