Custom Discretize

The Custom Discretize option allows you to customize the discretization on boundary line segments. Custom Discretize always applies a uniformly spaced discretization to the selected boundary segments.

NOTE: Custom Discretize can only be used AFTER the boundaries have been discretized, but BEFORE the mesh has been generated.

• If the boundaries are not discretized, then select Discretize before you can Custom Discretize.
• If the mesh exists, then you will have to select Remove Mesh and then select Discretize, before you can Custom Discretize.

To Custom Discretize:

1. Select the Mesh workflow tab.
2. Select Custom Discretize from the toolbar or the Mesh menu.
3. Use the mouse to select the boundary line segments that you would like to Custom Discretize.
4. When you are finished selecting, press Enter or right-click and select Done Selection.
5. You will see a dialog. There are two ways in which you can change the number of discretizations on the selected segments:
6. • Enter the number of discretizations that you would like to apply to each selected segment.
   • Enter a factor, which will be used to multiply the existing number of discretizations on each selected segment.
7. select [OK], and all selected line segments will be re-discretized according to the value (number or factor) you have entered in the Segment Discretization dialog.
8. Repeat steps 1-5 if different segments require different discretizations, since only one number at a time can be entered as a custom discretization.

Custom Discretize always applies a uniform discretization to the selected line segments, using the user-supplied number of discretizations, or multiplication factor, per line segment. If you wish to simulate a "graded" discretization along a boundary using Custom Discretization, you can insert vertices along a boundary to divide it up into smaller segments, and then apply a Custom Discretization to each segment.

Right-Click Shortcut

The Custom Discretize option is also available as a right-click shortcut.

1. If the boundaries are discretized, but the mesh has not been generated, you can right-click on any boundary segment, and select Custom Discretize from the popup menu.
2. This will display the Segment Discretization dialog, allowing you to customize the discretization of the clicked-on boundary segment, as described above.

The right-click shortcut can only be used on one boundary segment at a time.

What happens to Custom Discretization if the mesh is deleted?

When Remove Mesh is selected, both the mesh and discretizations are removed from the model. If you had previously applied any Custom Discretization, this will be "remembered" by RS2, and will be automatically re-applied when you select the Discretize option.

This allows you to remove the mesh if necessary (e.g. to further customize the discretization or edit boundaries) without losing any Custom Discretization which may have been applied.

NOTE: Custom Discretization is only saved while you are editing a model. After you close the file, if you later open the file and delete the mesh and then re-discretize, any Custom Discretization which existed previously will be gone.

Reset Custom Discretization

As noted above, Custom Discretization is saved if the mesh is deleted, while you are currently editing a RS2 model.

There may be times when you wish to reset any Custom Discretization, in order to start again with the default discretization of the model boundaries. For this purpose, you can select the Reset Custom Discretization option in the Mesh menu. This will reset all Custom Discretization and restore the default discretization of the boundaries.

NOTE: Reset Custom Discretization is only enabled if the boundaries are discretized, but the mesh has not been generated.

Other Methods of Changing the Discretization

The following methods can also be used to change the discretization of boundaries.

Mesh Setup

In the Mesh Setup dialog, the Number of Excavation Nodes and / or Gradation Factor can be used to adjust the discretization of the model boundaries.

Advanced Mesh Regions

Discretization can be customized using the Advanced Mesh Regions option in the Mesh Setup dialog. See the Advanced Mesh Regions topic for details.

Increase Discretization Density

The Increase Discretization Density option can be used to double the discretization density on selected boundaries. See the Increase Discretization Density topic for details.