What's New

R2022x FD01 (FP.2205)

Mesh Usability Enhancements

You can now add links to criteria files, better control mesh patterns, optimize surface elements, use enhanced trap selectors, and control mesh patterns in transition areas.

The following features enhance meshing usability:

Linked FEM and criteria file: Structural Model Creation now adds a link between the FEM and the criteria file in the database. When you run a quality analysis in Mesh Creation, you can now verify the current criteria set differs from the linked criteria and optionally synchronize the two files.
Perforating and surface traps: The manual group command now includes perforating and surface trap selectors. You can now select every node, face, or element inside or a trap, or only those that are both inside the trap and visible. The following figure shows a perforating trap:

The performance of perforating traps is better than surface traps.
Rectangular traps for the surface mesher:
- Remesh Area: The Remesh area command now has two rectangular trap selectors (including and intersecting).
- Selection by neighborhood: The Remesh area command now has an option to enter the number of element layers. This eliminates the need to propagate selections layer by layer.
Optimize surface elements for the surface mesher:
- Optimize Surface Elements: The Optimize Surface Elements command now has two rectangular trap selectors (including and intersecting).
- Selection by neighborhood: The Optimize Surface Elements command now has an option to enter the number of element layers. This eliminates the need to propagate selections layer by layer.
- Domain Selection enhancements: The Optimize Surface Elements command now has an improved domain selector that enables you to select more than one domain before validating the selection and beginning the optimization. In this manner, it optimizes the elements between the selected domains.
Mesh transition pattern control: You can now better control the mesh pattern in transition areas. You can scan the mesh for rotating quad patterns in a surface quadrangle mesh. Rotating quads are elements in the same mesh domain with nodes connected to three or five elements.

Benefits: Remeshing enhancements save you time when you select elements.

For more information, see Editing Quality Criteria Creating Groups Manually Remeshing an Area Optimizing Elements in a Surface Mesh

Mesh Quality Analysis Enhancements

The following enhancements make it easier to access mesh quality analysis information within the Quality Report:

The Quality Criteria editor now opens by default when running the Quality Analysis command for the first time.

The Quality Criteria editor opens every time if it was docked to the Quality Report dialog when closed.
You can also access the Quality Report from a new context menu in the Mesh Part Manager. The Statistics Curves, Worst Elements Browser, Criteria Editor, and Create CSV File subpanels in the Quality Report are docked by default the first time they are opened.

From the Quality tab of the Quality Report, you can now:

Display the current criteria file.

Important: If you previously edited the quality criteria for imported criteria, such as Elfini Checks, the Quality Report now prompts you to synchronize the current FEM with the initialization criteria stored in the database.

Display the total number of elements in the Global criterion.
Display the worst elements in the model colored by quality. Mesh Creation highlights good elements in green, poor elements in yellow, and bad elements in red.
Display the worst element for specific criteria. For example, you can display the worst elements for skewness.
Reframe your view to specific elements in the Quality Detailed Report.

From the Connectivity tab of the Quality Report, you can now:

Display the number of analyzed meshes and the number of mesh parts used in the quality analysis.
List only the connectivities from the current mesh selection.

Benefits: Docking the Quality Criteria Editor subpanels prevents too many dialog boxes from obscuring the model. In addition, the Quality Report enhancements enable you to see more information about the analysis at a glance, and the ability to access the worst elements from the table increases the efficiency of your analysis.

For more information, see Viewing Overall Element Quality

Tetrahedron Mesh and Surface Mesh Improvements

The Tetrahedron Mesher and Surface Mesher have enhanced capabilities.

You can now:

Define layer parameters for rib fillets.
Create rules for meshing rib fillets.
Activate or deactivate visualization of the meshed ribs rule.
Control mesh size along the length of the 3D hole.

For tetrahedron meshes only, you can now specify the minimum number of layers and the maximum aspect ratio for the depth parameter when meshing 3D holes.

Benefits: You now have greater control of the mesh size around fillets and holes. These explicit mesh size definitions help you achieve more accurate results from the simulation analysis.

For more information, see Adding Local Mesh Specifications Defining a Rule to Mesh Rib Fillets Defining a Rule to Mesh 3D Holes

Structured Meshing Support for the Partition Hex Mesher

The Partition Hex Mesher now uses a structured meshing technique to fill rectangular volumes.

When you are creating the mesh, the structured mesh volumes appear dark green. Sweep mesh volumes appear yellow, while non-hex volumes appear orange.

Typically, you use structured meshes to:

Avoid undesirable transitions in sweep meshes.
Produce higher-quality meshes when compared to sweep meshes.
Produce meshes faster.
Reduce the amount of partitioning to give compatible meshes.

Note: Although structured meshes are preferred, you can still create local mesh specifications to change the meshing technique for individual volumes.

Benefits: Structured meshing is faster than sweep meshing and produces higher-quality hex meshes than those resulting from the sweep meshing technique.

For more information, see Assign a Structured Technique

Enhanced Visualization Management

The enhanced visualization management tool, the Visibility Manager, displays new options for finite element models and uses a more efficient selection method than in previous releases.

The Visibility Manager displays visualization options as action icons, as opposed to the lists used in previous releases. In addition, an information label helps you keep track of the current action. For example, in the image below, the nodes and elements of the excavator model are hidden:

However, in the following image, the Visibility Manager settings display the nodes and elements of the excavator:

There have also been enhancements to the display of context menus. The context menus now show previously used commands when the Visibility Manager command is active.

The following image shows the context menu choices when the selected object is a FEM:

Benefits: The modified Visibility Manager and the enhancements to the associated context menus reduce the number of clicks you need to activate commonly used options.

For more information, see Managing the Visualization of Simulation Entities

R2022x GA

Simulations with Polyhedral Geometry

You can now run structural simulations on polyhedral geometry.

Polyhedral geometry is a less strict representation of a 3D shape than CAD-based geometry. It consists of many multifaceted shapes joined at their edges to produce an overall object. You might have polyhedral geometry as the result of a physical scan of terrain or living shapes or from running an optimization of a design that began as a CAD shape. You can use polyhedral geometry in place of CAD geometry in all actions except fastener detection and octree meshes.

Benefits: You can map the simulation properties and loads from the simulation for a CAD design to an updated, polyhedral version of the same design to verify that the new design meets the original specifications.

Model and Mesh Unification

Model and mesh capabilities are now contained within the model creation apps.

All actions for creating, editing, and reviewing the mesh and finite element model for a simulation are now located in the Structural Model Creation and Fluid Model Creation apps. The action bar sections have been integrated, and there is no longer a “switch to mesh” action. All meshing topics remain in the Mesh Creation guide to retain a single resource for mesh information.

Benefits: You can now access all model and mesh capabilities with no need to switch between apps.

Locking Elements and Domains

The Lock Domain command is now enhanced and renamed Element Lock.

You can now:

Manually lock or unlock individual elements or all the elements of the selected domain.
Lock a closed mesh domain that you define from a subregion of the mesh.

Mesh Creation displays locked elements as translucent. In addition, locked elements and domains remain locked across sessions.

Note: Locking behavior occurs at the element level; you cannot specify nodes, edges, or element faces.

Benefits: Locking individual elements or the elements of a selected domain allows you to modify parts of the mesh while keeping the locked portions unchanged.

For more information, see Splitting Quadrangles into Triangles