Femap Symposia Series 2016

San Diego, CA – ATA Engineering

Best Practices for Using Geometry

for Meshing
Femap Symposia Series 2016
Unrestricted © Siemens AG 2016
 Outline 2

1. Meshing Toolbox Review

2. Overview of Example
3. 2D Meshing
1. Midsurfacing
2. Geometry cleanup
3. Shell Meshing
4. 1D Meshing
1. Defining and editing Centerlines
2. Beam Meshing
3. Centerline API
 Meshing Toolbox 3

Review

• In FEMAP there are a lot of menu options to

mesh, but most of these commands are also
contained in the Meshing Toolbox.
• Auto Remesh Tool updates mesh as you make
changes
• Feature Editing
• Move surfaces
• Resize holes

• Geometry Editing
• Break curves
• Split surfaces
• Add pads and washers

• Mesh Sizing
• Update mesh size on curves

• Mesh Surface
• Update surface mesh attributes, element
shape, property
• Size and mesh
 Overview 4

Example Weldment

• Foundation weldment from NSRP (National Ship

Research Panel)
Overview 5

Demo Region
 Demo - Midsurfacing 6

Midsurface Generation

• Automatic midsurface generation

• Geometry  Midsurface  Automatic
• All parts are about 0.5” thick, so we can do a single operation
 Demo – Geometry Cleanup 7

Extend Surfaces

• Extend surfaces to close most gaps

• Meshing Toolbox  Geometry Editing
• Single surface mode uses the automatic select tool to select
target surfaces and edges to extend
 Demo – Geometry Cleanup 8

Split and Trim Surfaces

• Use meshing toolbox to split surfaces

• Project Curve
• Point to Point
• Point to Edge

• Delete overlapping and extraneous surfaces

delete

split
 Demo – Geometry Cleanup 9

Non-Manifold Add

• Use non-manifold add

• Joins midsurfaces into a single solid
• Merges curves on adjacent surfaces
• Highlights free edges after completion
 Demo – Meshing 10

Mesh Surfaces

• Meshing Toolbox  Mesh Surface

• Set property, mesh size, and mesh in one operation
• Show free edges
Demo – Meshing 11

Final Mesh
 Demo – Beam Meshing 12

Intro

• Same subset of the NSRP foundation weldment

• Apply a beam mesh
 Demo – Beam Meshing 13

Centerlines

• Line from Coordinates using method CG of Surface

• Cleanup using modify curve tools

Before Cleanup After Cleanup

 Demo – Beam Meshing 14

Properties

• Use a General Section to get the exact cross section

from the solid
• The reference point is the point on the centerline

• Use Attributes on Curve to assign a property and

direction vector to each curve
• Don’t forget to select Use Reference point
 Demo – Beam Meshing 15

Finish Mesh

• Turn on Thickness to Verify orientation of the cross

sections
• Mesh the curves, Use Meshing Attributes
• Add rigids to join centerline meshes