Learning Forum

[Sajiv Kumar]

Context: I have an STL file of an AFO which I import into Spaceclaim and then use the auto skin tool to create a patch. I then import the patch into ansys mechanical and create a mesh to do a static structural analysis. I do it this way because Im using the student version of Workbench and there is a limit on the number of nodes I can solve with.

I am not happy with the faces the Autoskin tool generates. They are long and thin with lots of T points and star points. when I create a mesh in mechanical, the element quality is low because of these faces. Is there a way to convert the mesh to a patch and get even faces that won't create problems in the meshing? The first image is of the STL file and the second image is of the patch using the autoskin. Or is there a way to clean up the geometry after conversion.

[Aniket]

Use virtual topology to merge faces in Mechanical if you want to use patch-dependent mesh methods, with mesh defeaturing option on. patch independent methods can walkover small features to suit to mesh quality.

-Aniket

How to access Ansys help links

Guidelines for Posting on Ansys Learning Forum

[mjmiddle]

 

 

For any of the patches you don’t like, you can delete and recreate using the manual “Skin Surface” in SpaceClaim. You can specify a lower number of “Samples” in the options of this tool to better walk over bumps and imperfections in the facetted mesh. But a lower sample number will also not fit as accurately. Try to find a number that gives the best balance to fit and fewer spikes.

However, if the issue is not surface roughness and imperfections, but the T points and star points you refer are just the boundary shapes, then the mesh defeature tolerance can merge across the thin ones as Aniket said. Just experiement with a defeature tolerance that works well for your model. Or right click on the "Model" in the Outline to insert "Virtual topology," and merge small faces to adjacent larger faces as Aniket also said.