Utilities

The commands on this page are accessed from Draw tab Modify panel in the FEA Editor.

Automatic Corrections to Meshes:

In some situations, wide-spread modeling mistakes can be corrected by using the following commands. This generally occurs when a mesh is imported from a source not designed for FEA, such as importing a CAD drawing.

For example, lines may cross over each other without being intersected, so the end points are not connected. This situation does not form a valid mesh. (Use the Global Intersect command.) Or, the end points of lines may be close but not exactly connected together, so elements are not formed in this situation. (Use the Global Snap command with the search tolerance large enough to snap nodes together.)

Global Snap: This command will snap together all the points that are located within the tolerance specified through the Set Search Tolerance command. This operation will be performed on the entire model.

Note:

The FEA Editor keeps duplicate vertices at the boundaries between adjacent parts, similar to how duplicate lines are required at the boundaries between parts. Consequently, the Global Snap command always reports that vertices between adjacent parts are combined, regardless of how many times the command is used. In most cases, combining these duplicate vertices will not change the model --- unless there are real gaps between the endpoints of the lines. Also, every line has a midside node which can be snapped to adjacent lines.
If the parts are bonded, then the duplicate vertices will be collapsed to one node number when a Check Model or analysis is performed.

Delete Short: This command will delete all lines in the model that are shorter than the distance specified through the Set Search Tolerance command.

Delete Unconnected: This command will delete all lines that are not connected to another line at either end.

Global Intersect: This command will intersect all of the lines in the model with the other lines in the model.

Remove Duplicate Lines: This command will remove duplicate lines in the same part. These lines are often created during some of the structured mesh routines.

Set Search Tolerance: This command will allow you to specify the CAD Preparation Tolerance. This tolerance will be used for many of the commands in this menu. This value is a length.

Note: The search tolerance is also used to determine whether two end points are the same or distinct. The tolerance is used when the FEA Editor prevents identical lines from being created, where identical means that the lines have the same end points and are on the same part number. This rule has an effect when adding geometry, copying, meshing, and so on.