When the Options button is pressed on the Model Mesh Settings screen and the Midplane icon is selected, a screen with one tab will appear. The Midplane icon will only be present if the Midplane radio button is selected in the Mesh type section of the Model Mesh Settings dialog box.
Mesh type section:
- Mixed (quadrilateral and triangular): Both 4-sided and three-sided elements are generated. This option is the default setting. Slight element face warpage is possible with quadrilateral planar elements (all four points do not necessarily lie on a common plane).
- Triangular: Only 3-sided elements are generated.
Thickness control section:
- User-specified maximum thickness: By default, the midplane mesh process will search each area of the part and create the midplane mesh along the smallest thickness that it detects. To specify a value to be used, activate this check box and enter the thickness in this field. Any area of the model that has a thickness larger than this value will not be midplane meshed.
- Maximum allowed thickness variation: If this check box is activated, the midplane mesh process will only convert the mesh on a part to a midplane if the difference between the maximum thickness and the minimum thickness in the part is less than the value specified in this field.
For complex geometric configurations that include junctions and intersections, a more accurate midplane mesh may be achieved by activating the Use junction method check box. If this check box is activated, a chordal axis transform (CAT) algorithm will be used to generate the midplane mesh. This method may eliminate discontinuities at the junctions and may provide a better approximation of the midplane of the geometry.