About Meshes | ||||||
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Finite Element Method
The finite element method consists in splitting complex geometries in small and simple elements whose behavior is known. Those elements are called finite elements. The process of splitting a complex geometry into finite elements is called meshing.
In a stress simulation the displacements of the nodes are the fundamental variables that the solver calculates. Once the nodal displacements are known, the stresses and strains in each finite element can be determined easily.
Color Meaning
Colors are used to indicate the element quality of meshes or to indicate topologic constraints.
Element Quality
The green color indicates that the mesh elements are solved by the solver without any problem (good mesh quality). The yellow color indicates that the mesh elements are solved by the solver with very few possible problems (poor mesh quality). The red color indicates that the mesh elements are hardly properly solved (bad mesh quality).
In
addition to the color, a symbol is displayed in the case of null-size
connection bars:
- A good quality is indicated by a green point.
- A poor quality is indicated by a yellow circle.
- A bad quality is indicated by two red circles.
Topologic Constraints
Constraining edges, holes or vertices imposes the mesher to respect those topologic constraints during the mesh operation. Otherwise, those geometries are ignored by the mesher. A color coding helps you to visualize the constrained edges, holes and vertices.
- Edges
- An edge is highlighted in:
- Yellow if the edge is contrained.
- Blue if the edge is not constrained.
- Holes
- A hole is highlighted in:
- Green when is considered as free edge, so automatically constrained.
- Blue if the hole is not constrained.
- Vertices
- A vertex is highlighted in:
- Red if it connects more than two edges. The vertex is automatically constrained and you cannot remove the constraint.
- Yellow if it connects two edges. The vertex is automatically constrained.
- Blue or is hidden when it is ignored.