All of the procedures available in the Automated FEM application create a mesh on one or more parts. The meshes are based on a set of parameters that you enter or retrieve from a saved meshing rule. Most of the procedures do not modify the model because modification is not required. For the midsurface procedure, the supplied input parameters are used not only to generate a mesh but to simplify the solid model—removing unimportant features—before creating and meshing the midsurface. The first step of the midsurface procedure is creation of an Abstraction Shape, a container with an editable copy of the model. Using a copy preserves the original model and allows geometry edits, even if you do not have access to edit the original geometry. Next, the model copy is defeatured. Defeaturing is the removal of small nonstructural features that are unimportant for your simulation purposes, such as fillets (up to the Max fillet radius parameter for the midsurface procedure). The next step is creation of the midsurface. This is a surface that carries the properties of a solid model, such as stiffness, but can be easily meshed with 2D surface elements and treated as a shell. The midsurface is positioned at the middle of the original solid thickness. The last required step is creation of a 2D mesh for the midsurface. The mesh is a Surface Quad mesh, created with either a saved mesh rule or with basic parameters (mesh size and linear or quadratic element order) that you enter for the midsurface procedure. For more information about surface meshes, see the Mesh Creation Guide. Finally, you have the option to generate a shell section that includes the properties, such as material attributes, that are applied to the midsurface shell. With the exception of the optional shell section, each of the above steps is required to create a midsurface mesh instead of meshing the original solid geometry. | |||||||||