Creating Tetrahedron Filler Meshes

You can generate a 3D mesh using linear or parabolic tetrahedron elements (TE4 or TE10 elements) from a surface mesh.

Before you begin: A finite element model representation that contains 2D meshes must exist.
Related Topics
Finite Element Model Representations
Meshing 2D Geometries
Linear Tetrahedron
Parabolic Tetrahedron
Updating Meshes
Creating 3D Properties

  1. In the Meshes toolbar, click Tetrahedron Filler Mesh .

    The Tetrahedron Filler Mesh dialog box appears.

  2. Select the support. You can select one or several 2D meshes (surface meshes, Octree triangle meshes, coating 2D meshes and all 2D meshes created using the transformed meshes).

  3. Choose the element type.

    • If you want to create linear tetrahedron elements (TE4 elements), select Linear.
    • If you want to create parabolic tetrahedron elements (TE10 elements), select Parabolic.

  4. In the Size progression box, enter a value.

    Important: The element type is independent of the element type of the 2D mesh.

  5. Click one of the following:

    • Cancel to cancel the modifications and close the dialog box.
    • Apply to save the parameters you defined and to create, update, and generate the mesh.

      The PLM Update progress bar appears. You can interrupt the update. See Updating Meshes.

      The Tetrahedron Filler Mesh dialog box remains open to continue modifying parameters if necessary.

    • OK to save the parameters you defined, to create the mesh, and to close the dialog box. To generate and visualize the mesh, you have to update it. See Updating Meshes.

    If you click Apply or OK, the 3D mesh is created and appears in the specification tree.