Choosing an element shape

You can control the shape of the elements in your mesh by selecting MeshControls from the main menu bar. The Element Shape options are located at the top of the Mesh Controls dialog box that appears.

Related Topics
Controlling mesh characteristics
Understanding mesh generation
Using the Mesh module toolbox
Selecting objects within the viewport

  1. From the main menu bar, select MeshControls.

    Abaqus/CAE displays prompts in the prompt area to guide you through the procedure.

    Tip: You can set the element shape using the tool, located in the Mesh module toolbox.

  2. If your part or assembly contains more than one region, select those regions whose element shapes you want to view or modify and then press mouse button 2. All the selected regions must have the same dimensionality.

    The Mesh Controls dialog box appears.

  3. From the list of Element Shape options, select the element shape of your choice.

    If you selected a two-dimensional region, you can choose from the following element shape options:

    Quad

    Use exclusively quadrilateral elements. The following figure shows an example of a mesh that was constructed using this setting:

    Quad-dominated

    Use primarily quadrilateral elements, but allow triangles in transition regions. This setting is the default. The following figure shows an example of a mesh that was constructed using this setting:

    Tri

    Use exclusively triangular elements. This setting is the only one available when you apply mesh controls to faces of solid regions since the triangular face mesh will be used to generate a tetrahedral solid mesh. The following figure shows an example of a mesh that was constructed using this setting:

    If you selected a three-dimensional region, you can choose from the following element shape options:

    Hex

    Use exclusively hexahedral elements. This setting is the default. The following figure shows an example of a mesh that was constructed using this setting:

    Hex-dominated

    Use primarily hexahedral elements, but allow some triangular prisms (wedges) in transition regions. The following figure shows an example of a mesh that was constructed using this setting:

    Tet

    Use exclusively tetrahedral elements. The following figure shows an example of a mesh that was constructed using this setting:

    Wedge

    Use exclusively wedge elements. The following figure shows an example of a single-element mesh that was constructed using this setting:

  4. Click OK.

    The next time you generate a mesh on the selected regions, your selections will be honored.

    If the selected regions are already meshed, you will be prompted to delete the mesh or to cancel the mesh control procedure.