Tutr MSH Connections

Meshing: Mesh Connections
The Mechanical application supports the use of mesh connections for joining the meshes of neighboring
surface bodies in a multibody part that may not share topology. Mesh connections can be edge-to-edge or
edge-to-face.
In contrast to connecting geometry at the geometry level, mesh connections let you connect geometry at
the mesh level. Some geometry editing is easier when done at the geometry level (typically best for bigger
fixes), while other geometry editing is easier at the mesh level (typically best for smaller fixes). This tutorial
does not cover editing at the geometry level. However, users should be aware of both options and consider
the pros and cons:
Repairing small gaps in the DesignModeler application is sometimes difficult to do at the geometry
level but may be relatively easy at the mesh level.
A mesh size that is roughly the same as the gap size will cause problems during meshing.
Model updating is an important consideration. Mesh connections do not work with the Compare Parts
on Update option or direct meshing.
The model used in this tutorial is a sheet metal assembly with gaps between midsurfaced parts. The tutorial
demonstrates how to use mesh connections to stitch together the gaps between the parts. It also explores
display and meshing options that make the meshing process more flexible. Topics covered in this tutorial
include:
Mesh connections
Display options
Surface meshing defaults
Defeaturing
This tutorial requires you to have a copy of the Parasolid file Mesh_Connections_Example.x_t. If you
do not have this file, download the necessary ZIP file from the ANSYS Customer Portal at:
http://www1.ansys.com/customer
The ZIP file related to this tutorial is available on the ANSYS Tutorials page of the ANSYS Customer Portal,
which is the same page that you accessed to obtain these instructions.
After you have the Parasolid file, you can proceed to Tutorial Setup.
1. Tutorial Setup
Creating the Project and Importing the Geometry
The geometry is imported complete, from a Parasolid file.
1. Open ANSYS Workbench.

2. From Windows Explorer, drag-and-drop the Mesh_Connections_Example.x_t file onto the Project
Schematic. This action creates a standalone Geometry system.
Release 13.0 - SAS IP, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 1
3. Select File > Save from the main menu and save the project as Mesh_Connections.wbpj.
4. From the Toolbox, drag-and-drop a Mechanical Model system onto the Geometry system. This action
creates a Mechanical Model system with a link to the Geometry system, indicating that the two share
data.
5. Delete the Geometry system, clicking OK when the warning about deletion of unshared data appears.
6. On the Mechanical Model system, right-click on the Geometry cell and select Edit Geometry... to
launch the DesignModeler application.
7. In the dialog box that asks you to select the desired length unit, select Inch and click OK.
8. On the toolbar, click Generate to import the sheet metal assembly.
The Tree Outline should now show that you have 8 Parts, 8 Bodies.
Forming a Multibody Part

Since mesh connections must be defined on bodies of a multibody part, you must combine the eight parts
into one multibody part.
1. On the toolbar at the top of the window, click Selection Filter: Bodies . This means that you can
select only solid bodies in the next operation, which helps to make the selection process easier.
2. Click Select Mode and select Box Select from the drop-down menu.
3. In the Geometry window, select all eight bodies by holding down the left mouse button and dragging
a box from left to right across the whole geometry to select all eight bodies. To be selected, all of the
entities must lie completely within the box that you have drawn. When you release the mouse button,
the status bar located along the bottom of the window should change to show that 8 Bodies are se-
lected.
4. Right-click on the Geometry window and select Form New Part.
The Tree Outline should now show that you have 1 Part, 8 Bodies.
The geometry does not need further modifications. From the DesignModeler application's main menu, select
File > Save Project to save the project and then File > Close DesignModeler to return to the Project
Schematic. Notice the Geometry cell appears in an up-to-date state.
Now that the tutorial is set up, you can proceed to Learning to Use Mesh Connections.
2 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
Using Display Controls
2. Learning to Use Mesh Connections

Getting Started in the Mechanical Application
In this part of the tutorial, you will launch the Mechanical application and set initial options.
1. On the Project Schematic, right-click the Model cell in the Mechanical Model system and select Edit...
to launch the Mechanical application.
2. On the main menu, click Units and select U.S. Customary (in, lbm, lbf, F, s, V, A).
3. Click to select the first Surface Body listed in the Tree Outline. Then press and hold the Ctrl key and
select the remaining seven bodies in the Tree Outline.
4. To assign a thickness to all bodies, set Thickness to 0.1 in the Details View.
Note
A generic thickness is being used for this tutorial. For a real-life case, it is important to use
real thickness data.

In this part of the tutorial, you will be introduced to some display controls that are useful when working
with mesh connections.
1. Click the Geometry object in the Tree Outline to de-select the surface bodies.
2. On the main menu, click View and select Toolbars > Graphics Options to toggle the Graphics Options
toolbar on as shown below. You may not need to do this, because the toolbar is on by default.
3. Click Show Vertices to highlight all vertices on the model. This feature is especially useful when ex-
amining complex assemblies where vertices might normally be hidden from view. It can also be used
to ensure that edges are complete and not segmented unintentionally. Click Show Vertices again to
toggle it off.
4. Click Wireframe to view the model with distinct edges only (recommended for seeing gaps in surface
bodies). Click Wireframe again to toggle it off.
5. The Edge Coloring section of the Graphics Options toolbar allows you to control how edge/face
connectivity is displayed. Click Edge Coloring and then choose each of the options below from the
drop-down menu. Notice the effects as you toggle each option on and off.
By Body Color
By Connection
Black
6. The next section of the Graphics Options toolbar provides controls for displaying Free, Single, Double,
Triple, and Multiple edges. For each of these options, you can choose to Hide, Show, or show in
Thick mode. For example, retaining Black for the Edge Coloring option and setting Single to Thick
Single results in the display shown below.
In this example, the geometry has not been connected, so most edges are single edges. The free edges
could have been extended in the DesignModeler application, but this tutorial illustrates the use of
mesh connections as an alternative.
7. Before proceeding, set Edge Coloring to By Body Color and set Single to Show Single.
The two remaining options on the Graphics Options toolbar are Edges Joined by Mesh Connection
and Thicken Annotations:
Edges Joined by Mesh Connection displays the edges using coloring schema, by taking into account
the mesh connection information. You will use this option later in this tutorial after connections have
been generated.
For annotations scoped to lines (for example, annotations representing loads, named selections, point
masses, and so on), enabling the Thicken Annotations button thickens these lines so they are more
easily identifiable on the screen.
Defining Mesh Connections

In this part of the tutorial, you will set mesh connection options and create automatic connections.
1. To insert a Connection Group, right-click Connections in the Tree Outline and select Insert > Con-
nection Group.
2. In the Details View, set:
Connection Type to Mesh Connection
Tolerance Slider to -100
Edge/Edge to Yes
3. In the Tree Outline, right-click Connection Group and select Create Automatic Connections.
The Tree Outline will be populated with mesh connections. In the Tree Outline, click to expand the
Mesh Connections group so you can see the list of connections.
Viewing Mesh Connections Display

In this part of the tutorial, you will explore some of the display options described earlier to view the mesh
connections.
1. On the Graphics Options toolbar, set Edge Coloring to By Connection.
Viewing Mesh Connections Display
2. Click Edges Joined by Mesh Connection to display the edges using coloring schema. This feature
allows you to diagnose edges to ensure proper connections.
3. In the list of Mesh Connections in the Tree Outline, you can click each connection to view its properties
and adjust as appropriate. For example, the figure below shows the result of selecting the first connec-
tion that is listed in the Tree Outline.
Generating the Mesh

In this part of the tutorial, you will generate the mesh.
1. In the Tree Outline, right-click Mesh and select Generate Mesh.

2. On the main menu, click View and select Thick Shells and Beams to toggle it off.
It is important to turn off the thick shell display so that Triple and Multiple edges can be properly
viewed, as shown below. Notice the mesh around the holes on top of the model.
3. Before proceeding to the next section, clear the mesh. Right-click Mesh and select Clear Generated
Data. Then click Yes to clear the data.
Regenerating the Mesh
Note
Shell meshing defaults were changed in Release 13.0. Advanced Size Functions are used with
curvature. More information on these topics is presented later in this tutorial.
After meshing a warning about pinch control appears. The warning is a result of the mesh
connections and can be ignored, or you can fix the mesh connections locally. You can use
pinch controls to fine tune any mesh connection.
Defeaturing and Hole Removal

In this part of the tutorial, you will learn about defeaturing and hole removal options.
1. In the Details View, click to expand the Defeaturing group of controls.

2. Notice that Automatic Mesh Based Defeaturing is set to On by default, which allowed some defea-
turing to occur during surface meshing.
You can adjust the Defeaturing Tolerance as needed. Retain the default for this tutorial.
3. Notice that Sheet Loop Removal is set to No by default.
When sheet loop removal is turned on, holes smaller than a defined size will be removed.
4. Change Sheet Loop Removal to Yes.
5. Set Loop Removal Tolerance to 0.5.
6. In the Tree Outline, right-click Mesh and select Show > Removable Loops to view holes/loops (shown
in green below) that will be removed with the current settings.
Regenerating the Mesh

In this part of the tutorial, you will regenerate the mesh and compare the meshes obtained before/after
loop removal.
2. Notice the differences in the meshes before and after loop removal. Also notice that default surface
meshing is more uniform and orthogonal than in previous releases.
Improving Mesh Connections

In this part of the tutorial, you will learn about a method for improving mesh connections.
1. Zoom and reposition the model as shown below. The mesh in this area can be improved.
2. Right-click Mesh and select Clear Generated Data. Then click Yes to clear the data.
3. On the toolbar, click Edge .

4. Pick one of the edges in the area to be improved, click the right mouse button, and select Go To >
Mesh Connections for Selected Bodies from the menu.
Improving Mesh Connections
The connections in that area are highlighted in the Tree Outline, and also are identified in the Geometry
window, as shown below.
5. In the Tree Outline, select the first highlighted connection so that you can view its properties in the
Details View. Then reposition the model in the Geometry window as shown below.
6. In the case of the selected connection, flipping the master and slave entities might solve the problem.
However, since the master entity is a face and the slave entity is an edge, flipping them will not work
with the current definitions (i.e., a connection can be edge-to-face or edge-to-edge, but not face-to-
edge). If you redefine the master as the edge (so that both entities in the connection will be edges),
you can then flip the entities. To do so:
On the toolbar, click Edge .

In the Geometry window, pick the edge to be the new master. The edge to pick as the master is
identified as Edge A in the figure above.
In the Details View, click Master Geometry to apply the new definition.
In the Tree Outline, right-click on the connection and select Flip Master/Slave. After flipping the
entities, the image in the Geometry window should look like the one shown below. Edge B is now
the master and Edge A is the slave.
Notice the improvements in the mesh.
Conclusions and Limitations
Conclusions and Limitations

What you have learned:
Tools are available to help provide flexibility in meshing beam/shell models.

Display options are very useful to help diagnose connectivity issues.
Mesh connections, as well as pinch controls, can be used to fix connectivity issues.
When geometry editing is necessary, it is important to consider whether editing should occur at the
geometry level or mesh level.
Mesh connection limitations:
All bodies that share mesh connections must be meshed at the same time. This means that you cannot
use direct meshing techniques (i.e., body by body meshing) in conjunction with mesh connections.
The Uniform Quad/Tri mesh method does not work with mesh connections; thus, mesh method inter-
operability also does not work.
Mapped mesh controls do not work well with mesh connections when the mapped mesh controls are
applied to faces that are being modified by an edge-to-face connection (or pinch).
This completes the tutorial. From the main menu, select File > Save Project to save the project and then
File > Close Mechanical to return to the Project Schematic.
You can exit ANSYS Workbench by selecting File > Exit from the main menu.

Tutr MSH Connections

Transféré par

Informations du document

Titre original

Copyright

Formats disponibles

Partager ce document

Partager ou intégrer le document

Options de partage

Avez-vous trouvé ce document utile ?

Ce contenu est-il inapproprié ?

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

Tutr MSH Connections

Transféré par

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

Meshing: Mesh Connections

1. Open ANSYS Workbench.

8. On the toolbar, click Generate to import the sheet metal assembly.

Forming a Multibody Part

2. Learning to Use Mesh Connections

Using Display Controls

Defining Mesh Connections

Viewing Mesh Connections Display

1. On the Graphics Options toolbar, set Edge Coloring to By Connection.

Generating the Mesh

1. In the Tree Outline, right-click Mesh and select Generate Mesh.

Defeaturing and Hole Removal

1. In the Details View, click to expand the Defeaturing group of controls.

Regenerating the Mesh

1. In the Tree Outline, right-click Mesh and select Generate Mesh.

Improving Mesh Connections

3. On the toolbar, click Edge .

On the toolbar, click Edge .

7. In the Tree Outline, right-click Mesh and select Generate Mesh.

Notice the improvements in the mesh.

Conclusions and Limitations

Tools are available to help provide flexibility in meshing beam/shell models.

Mesh connection limitations:

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi