The same process is used to create a quadrilateral boundary mesh and a hexahedral solid mesh for geometric faces of bottom-up mesh regions (for more information, see Creating the boundary mesh for a bottom-up region). If your part is complex, generating a free tetrahedral mesh can be time consuming. Previewing the mesh on the boundary faces can help you identify problems before generating a mesh for the entire part. You can preview the triangles on the boundary faces after the first phase of the meshing process by toggling on Preview boundary mesh in the prompt area before you generate the mesh. If the mesh is acceptable, you can continue meshing the interior of the region. If the mesh is not acceptable or if some regions failed to mesh, Abaqus/CAE provides a variety of tools for correcting the problems. For more information, see What can I do with a boundary mesh?. If you decide to preview the triangular boundary mesh for a region, Abaqus/CAE allows you to select faces to mesh even though your final intent is to mesh a solid. When you toggle on Preview boundary mesh, Abaqus/CAE automatically changes the selection filter in the prompt area to select Faces. For more information, see Filtering your selection based on the type of object. When the Mesh defaults color mapping is selected, Abaqus/CAE displays a boundary mesh using white to represent the boundary elements, which is in contrast to the cyan color that Abaqus/CAE uses to represent the final mesh. When you query the tetrahedral boundary mesh, Abaqus/CAE refers to the elements as Tri boundary elements. In contrast, when you query the final mesh, Abaqus/CAE refers to the elements as Linear tetrahedral elements or Quadratic tetrahedral elements. The triangles on the boundary faces have no concept of geometric order. | |||||||