Tutorial

FROM SOLID TO SHELL

MIDDLE SKIN EXTRACTION
Table of Contents
1. Introduction...................................................................................................................................2 1.1. Prerequisites..........................................................................................................................2 1.2. Problem description ...............................................................................................................2 1.3. Data files................................................................................................................................3 2. Reading the CAD file......................................................................................................................4 3. Automated extraction of the Middle-Skin MIDDLE > MULTI function.........................................5 4. Shell meshing...............................................................................................................................12 5. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................17

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FROM SOLID TO SHELL Middle Skin Extraction 1. Introduction

This tutorial presents the Middle-Multi functionality that can be used in order to extract a middle skin description from a solid part. In this tutorial it will be presented how this functionality can be used in order to overcome some problematic regions. The main processes that are featured are the following: the automatic middle-skin extraction with some manual user interaction, where needed the shell-meshing of the extracted middle-skin and its refinement The steps described in this tutorial include: 11. 12. 13. 14. Read the STEP file and check topology. Examine the main features of the geometry and plan a working approach. Extract the middle skin description using the Middle>[Multi] functionality. Create a draft surface mesh and examine it.

1.1. Prerequisites It is highly recommenced to have performed Tutorials 1 and 2, or to already have a basic ANSA background. Not all steps are described to the last detail. 1.2. Problem description The geometry of the solid part is shown below. It is the half part of a bumper.

Inner ribs

Inner big ribs

Main body

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FROM SOLID TO SHELL Middle Skin Extraction

1.3. Data files The files of this tutorial are located in the directory tutorial_files/middle_multi. One ANSA file named bumper.ansa contains the geometry. The resulting ANSA database can be found for reference in the file bumper_result.ansa .

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FROM SOLID TO SHELL Middle Skin Extraction 2. Reading the CAD file
Start ANSA. Set middle Tolerance settings in Windows > Options > Settings> Tolerances. In RESOLUTION, set 1mm and 4mm for Curves and CONS resolution respectively. FILE OPEN Now read in the file bumper.ansa.

Select the CAD file in the File Manager and press OK. The CAD file is read and topology is applied. The geometry should be clean with no gaps. De-activate DOUBLE CONS visibility flag temporarily to check that no free red CONS are visible.

Activate back DOUBLE CONS visibility and SHADOW display mode. Press FACEs>ORIENT to assign a uniform orientation to all the visible Faces. ORIENT Press FACEs>INVERT if required to flip the orientation. Notice: orientation will be automatically applied when using the Middle>Multi functionality.

Save the ANSA database locally from FILE>SAVE AS. The fact that only yellow double CONS are visible everywhere means that this is a closed volume description of a solid part. In the following steps you will extract the middle skin surface in order to mesh it with shell elements of equivalent thickness. First we will extract the middle skin surface from the inner ribs of the model and then we will extract the middle skin surface from the outer entities.

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FROM SOLID TO SHELL Middle Skin Extraction 3. Automated extraction of the Middle-Skin MIDDLE > MULTI function
From the TOPO>FACEs group activate the MIDDLE>Multi function. The basic MIDDLE window appears, which consists, primarily, of three parts. All parts are fully user-interactive and enable the most accurate result, according to the user's needs. In that Middle-Multi window that appears assign a Thickness value, so that the algorithm can start searching for entities that have a thickness equal or less than the specified value. It is recommended to start from a small value and increase it after each step. In the field 'Thick. step' the user can define the thickness range. After that a new property will be applied on the extracted faces. In the specific example, a new PID will be applied every 0.25mm. The 'Mean thick.' indicates the mean thickness found in the highlighted region. The 'PID thick.' indicates the thickness that will be applied in the new Property for thelowest extracted face. window In the partmiddle of the 'Middle' the options to put the new created entities in a new Part are displayed. Furthermore, the user can keep the new entities invisible, by activating the option 'Hide middle faces'. When the option 'Focus current pair' is active, the Middle-Skin tool will translate towards the next region that will be found. Notice: The order in which the regions are found, through this algorithm, is not always the same. This means that there might be a case, when going through this tutorial, that the user will not get the following cases in the same order. But this should not cause the least trouble or misunderstanding to the user. In order to get better results it is recommended to extract the middle face first from the ribs and then from the other entities. This means that, the user has the ability to select (by pressing the 'Next' button) a specific pair of faces to start with the middle-skin extraction.

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FROM SOLID TO SHELL Middle Skin Extraction

By pressing the 'Auto' button, the first region is detected. (case 1) The algorithm marks the two opposite sides (faces for middle-skin extraction) with red and green and the thickness with blue. Since the selected pair is not one of the rib-parts, as recommended previously, press the 'Next' button to get to the next region.

Notice-1: The 'Next' button is active only when more then one pairs are found. The number of pairs found is displayed in the window. In the specific case, 2 pairs are found. Notice-2: In order to extract the middle face from a region, the opposite sites should be alike and the blue should be the thickness. If this is not the case, the user has to manipulate/edit the selections manually, with the use of the 'Manual' button. Continuing with the procedure, the next region is selected (case 2). The selection seems to have no problems, so press the OK button in the 'MIDDLE' window. After the middle face of this region is extracted, the region of case 1 is highlighted. It is not time to fix this region yet, according to the basic recommendations. In order to continue, type a new thickness value (3mm) so that new pairs are found.

Again the case 1 is as first highlighted. Press 'Next' to get to the next region. The next region is a rib. (case 3). Press 'OK' to extract the middle face of it. Continuing with the procedure, next a fillet is highlighted (case 4). Due to the fact that the inner ribs are not fixed yet, it is preferable not to proceed with fixing the outer entities. Therefore, press the 'Next' button to get to the next pair. Specifically, press the 'Next' button until the next inner rib is detected.

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FROM SOLID TO SHELL Middle Skin Extraction

When this rib is highlighted (case 5) press OK to extract the middle skin surface. After that go to the next inner rib and press OK again.

Now that the inner ribs (cases 3 & 5) are fixed, the middle skin surface from the fillets can be extracted (case 6). In order to ensure that the red, green and blue faces are correctly defined, activate the CROSSHATCHES. After extracting the middle skin surface from this fillet, move to the fillet of case 4. In a closer view, it is obvious that the definition of the highlighted region should be manually manipulated.

As we can see the blue path (thickness) has not the same length as the green and red paths. In order to fix it, press the 'EDIT' button in the 'MIDDLE' window.

The upper part of the 'MIDDLE' window is activated. Select the 'Blue' faces from the 'Group Selection' and select from screen with the left mouse button the faces that should be added to the blue path.

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FROM SOLID TO SHELL Middle Skin Extraction

After editing the blue path the region is correctly defined and the user can proceed with the extraction of the middle skin surface by clicking the 'OK' button.

Continue to the next inner rib (case 8). The definition has the same problem. Edit the blue path in order to correct the definition and press the 'OK' button to extract the middle skin surface. In the next steps, extract the middle skin surfaces from the rest of the ribs.

After extracting the middle surface of all the inner ribs of the model, the result is the one features in the picture. In the model there are only the 2 big ribs remaining. (case 9) In order to achieve a better quality in the result, these 2 ribs will be treated in two steps.

In the first step, the middle surface of the entities that have curvature will be extracted. In the 'MIDDLE' window, press the 'EDIT' button. Select to manipulate the red entities and with the right mouse button de-select all the needless entities. Do the same for the Green and the Blue entities. By pressing 'OK', the middle surface will be extracted.

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FROM SOLID TO SHELL Middle Skin Extraction

In the second step, the middle surface of the rest of the rib will be extracted. By pressing 'Next' in the 'MIDDLE' window, the user will end up with the rest of the rib. Pressing 'OK' once again for the extraction. Proceeding in the same way, the middle surface of the second big rib will be extracted (in 2 steps again).

While working in the other big rib (case 10) the user will face the situation displayed in the picture. The blue path is longer then the red and green paths. In order to get the same length in the rib with the curvature, press the 'Edit' button and then select the option 'Trim Manual'. Cut the blue path in the Hot Points so that it gets the same length as the red and green paths. Notice: The same result will be reached if selecting the 'Trim Auto' option, instead of trimming it manually. After cutting the blue path confirm with middle mouse button and de-select the blue path that is not needed. Then press the 'OK' button to extract the middle surface. Pressing the 'Next' button, get the rest of the rib. Press OK to extract the middle surface of the rest of the rib.

By pressing the 'Next' button, the last region (case 11) is displayed. In order to improve the results, the middle surface won't be extracted from the highlighted region but from the neighbor region.

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FROM SOLID TO SHELL Middle Skin Extraction

In order to achieve this, select the Option 'Manual' from the 'MIDDLE' window. In this way, the user intervenes manually to the region and does not let the algorithm work automatically.

In the upper part of the window activate the red option in order to select the red path. Accordingly, do the same for the green and the blue path.

Select the region from which the middle surface extraction is demanded (case 12). After selecting all the paths, press the 'OK' button in the MIDDLE' window.

Press the 'Auto' button to get the last 2 pairs. Press next (if necessary) to highlight the side entities (case 13). Edit the blue path in order to correct it. Press the 'OK' button to extract the middle surface. Automatically the last pair will be highlighted, the main body of the model. Extract the middle surface from this pair by pressing the 'OK' button in the 'MIDDLE' window.

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FROM SOLID TO SHELL Middle Skin Extraction

At this point, the middle surface extraction has been completed. The final model is displayed in the following picture.

As a next step, the shell-meshing of the model can take place. Up to this point, the tutorial is completed. Save the file and quit.

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FROM SOLID TO SHELL Middle Skin Extraction 4. Shell meshing

Switch to MESH menu. Activate the MACROs>LENGTH LENGTH function and select all the Macros. Specify an element length of 4 in the Input window that appears and press Enter. Keep the MIXED in the SHELL MESH>MIXED.. switch button.

Activate the SHELL MESH>FREE [Visible] function to mesh all the visible Macros with the FREE algorithm and TRIA elements. The part is meshed. (If a message x Macros remain umeshed appears in the Text Window, press the UNMESHED [MACROs] function to isolate them and check for problems in their topology). Next step is a basic quality check and improvement. Keep only the SKEW flag active in the quality criteria buttons at the bottom.

HIDDEN

Activate the HIDDEN view mode.

The skewed elements are viewed in green. (The bad elements identified here are according to the ANSA default skewness check. Press F11 to access the Presentation Parameters window and select the desired quality settings).

Activate the SHELL MESH>RECONS [Visible] function. ANSA reconstructs the current mesh. The reported number of the visible skewed elements is lowered in the text legend on the left.

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FROM SOLID TO SHELL Middle Skin Extraction

Press the EXTREME function of the Focus group to isolate the Macros that have skewed elements. EXTREME

Zoom in to the area shown.

These skewed elements are a result of the short CONS, and correspondingly here Perimeters, that the Extension of the Faces left over.

Activate the MACROs>JOIN>Erasing Mesh function and select them with the left mouse button. It is preferable to use this option and proceed in reconstructing at a next step. Joining these Perimeters results in the deletion of the mesh locally. Before remeshing activate the SHELL MESH>RECON flag, so that Reconstruction takes place in the background to get the optimum mesh. RECON

RE-MESH Visible

Activate the SHELL MESH>RE-MESH [Visible] function.

The erased Macros Area is re-meshed with the same meshing algorithm, in this case the FREE, and reconstruction is applied automatically.

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FROM SOLID TO SHELL Middle Skin Extraction

The other two other similar parts have the same kind of problem at both sides and they should be corrected in the same way.

DELETE In addition the Hot Points at that parts should be deleted with HOT POINTs>DELETE.

Note that in order to avoid having to use the SHELL MESH> REMESH function after Perimeter modifications the user can activate the SHELL MESH>AMESH flag button. A.MESH

Apart from the aforementioned parts, there are also some other narrow Macro Areas with skewed elements. JOIN Points. (Note that in SETTINGS>GENERAL SETTINGS there is an option to delete automatically any unused Hot Points after a JOIN operation). Make any other necessary similar modifications. By switching to EL.THICK display mode, the user can view the shell elements colored by the PID thickness according to a color bar. Additionally, with the QGRAPH display mode, the user can select can visualize the criterion, according to which, the model will be drawn. Use the function MACROs>JOIN and delete the left over Hot

SHADOW mode facilitates viewing.

The following pictures offer a view of the EL. THICK and QGRAPH display mode, accordingly.

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FROM SOLID TO SHELL Middle Skin Extraction

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Finally, pressing F11 access the Presentation Parameters window where you can activate the flag Shell as Solid. This allows the visualization of shell elements as solid according to their PID thickness, that have been automatically created during the middle-skin extraction.

The tutorial is fully meshed and completed. Save the file and quit.

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FROM SOLID TO SHELL Middle Skin Extraction 5. Conclusion

In this tutorial all the basic steps have been followed in order to extract the middle surface description of a solid part, by using the MIDDLE>Multi functionality, and mesh it with shell elements. Not all capabilities were fully demonstrated. Additionally, please, refer to ANSA v13.x Users Guide and to the On-Line Help for the ANSA_v13.x functionality and detailed description of functions and procedures.

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