Distributing Elements Around a Curve

You can impose nodes by distributing them around a curve. This technique is applicable only when meshing with the Quad Dominant technique.

Before you begin: Open the Surface Mesher or the Partition Hex Mesher.
See Also
Creating and Editing Surface Meshes
Creating and Editing a Partition Hex Mesh
Imposing Nodes
  1. From the Mesh Specifications section of the action bar, click Mesh around Curve .
    The Mesh around Curve dialog box appears.
  2. Select one or more curves along which you want to create layers of quadrangle elements.

    Tip: For Partition Hex Mesher, you can turn on Emphasize valid support to highlight features that are possible selections.

  3. In the Propagate on list, select the number of layers or rows you want to create around the curves: One layer, Two layers, or Three layers.

    If a selected edge is a free edge, the layers propagate to the interior of the part. If an edge is an interior edge, the layers propagate to both sides of the edge.

  4. For each layer, enter a value to define the height of the layer.

    Note: The number of layers and the layer heights must be suitable for the size of the model and elements. Too many layers or too much height might cause mesh failure or creation of a poor mesh around the selected curves.

  5. Click OK.
    When you mesh the part, the prescribed number of layers of quadrangle elements are generated along the curves.

The layers of quadrangle elements are generated along the selected curves. There might be some triangular elements at places where curves intersect such that quad elements cannot be used.