Voxels describe the volume occupied by an object by breaking it into either cubic (isotropic) or rectangular (anisotropic) solid elements of identical size. The uniformity of the voxels makes the mesh easier to build and interpret than meshes that include a variety of element shapes and sizes. However, voxel elements do not conform to part boundaries. The stacks of identical voxel elements produce a jagged surface—a less accurate approximation of the part—compared to other mesh types. To mitigate this inaccuracy, the voxel mesh creates a volume fraction mapping that stores what percentage of each element is filled by the geometry or tessellation. The simulation uses this information to scale the mass, stiffness, and thermal conductivity of each element based on this percentage of fill. Elements that have less than 100% fill will have their values of stiffness, mass, and thermal conductivity reduced. Note:
Voxel meshes do not create associativity between the geometry and the elements in the
mesh. This lack of associativity means that you need to apply any loads, boundary
conditions, section definitions, etc. directly to the mesh via groups instead of to the
geometry being meshed.
In additive manufacturing process simulations, understanding potential part distortion due to the local heating and cooling as layers are added might outweigh the surface accuracy of the part. If your goal is accurate simulation of the final part and its performance, you can use another mesh type instead of a voxel mesh. To simulate an additive manufacturing process, the voxel mesh is constructed to represent the completed part and any required supports. The mesh is activated, layer by layer, to represent the material deposition of the additive process. The STL file format is the most commonly used file format for 3D printing. It describes the surface geometry of the 3D model. You can use Digitized Shape Preparation to import STL files by dragging them into the interface. | |||||||||