Manually Editing the Mesh in the Surface and Tetrahedron Mesher

You can preview and then dynamically update the quality of a surface mesh. You can move nodes on or out of geometry, edit finite elements (splitting, swapping, etc.), or smooth the mesh. You can also make manual mesh edits by selecting the manual edit tool from the mesh editing tools section of the action bar in the Mesh Editor app. See Manually Editing the Mesh.

These manual mesh editing tools for surface and 3D rules meshes are also available from the context toolbar.

Before you begin: Open the Surface Mesher or Tetrahedron Mesher.
See Also
Splitting Quadrangles into Triangles
Meshing and Removing a Mesh
About Mesh Context Toolbars
  1. From the Edit section of the action bar, click Edit Mesh .
    The Edit Mesh dialog box appears. You enter the mesh editing mode, and you can access several tools to manually modify mesh edges and mesh faces to improve the mesh quality (remove mesh edges, move mesh nodes, split mesh elements, etc.).
  2. To optimize the shape of neighbor elements when you modify an edge or a face, select the Smooth around modifications check box.
  3. To combine two triangles of neighbor elements into a quadrangle with a good mesh quality (if possible) when you modify an edge or face, select the Combine around modifications check box.
  4. To swap edges of neighbor elements when you modify an edge or a face, select the Swap around modifications check box.
  5. To propagate smoothing modifications from one domain to a neighboring one, select the Propagate to neighbor domains check box.
  6. To remove an edge, right-click an edge and select Remove Edge.

    Tip: You can also pass your cursor over a edge, and select it when the eraser symbol appears.


    The edge is removed:

  7. To condense nodes, right-click and select Condense Nodes.
  8. To split an element, right-click it, and select Insert Node.

    Tip: You can also pass your cursor on an element and select it when the scissors symbol appears.


  9. To swap edges, right-click an edge, and select Swap Edge.
  10. To move a node, pass your cursor over a node, click it, and drag it to the desired location.

    To move a node beyond the outer boundaries of the mesh, right-click the node and select Move node outside mesh. The Robot is positioned on the node so you can use it to manipulate the position of the node.



  11. Click Cancel to cancel the modifications or OK to validate the modifications.
    The dialog box closes, and you exit the mesh editing mode.