Advanced Mesh Regions

The Advanced Mesh Regions option in the Mesh Setup dialog, allows the user maximum flexibility in customizing the density of the mesh in any user-defined regions.

NOTE: Advanced Mesh Regions is only available if the Mesh Type = Graded in the Mesh Setup dialog.

To add an Advanced Mesh Region:

1. Select the Advanced button in the Mesh Setup dialog and it will expand to display the advanced mesh setup options.
2. Select the Use Advanced Mesh Regions check box.
3. To add a new mesh region select the Add button. The dialog will minimize and you will be prompted to select a region. There are two ways you can select a region
   1. Click the mouse inside a closed region (e.g. an excavation boundary), Or
   2. Click and drag a rectangle around any region of the mesh.
4. For each advanced mesh region, you can define the element length and the mesh type as described below.
5. Element Length - enter the desired element length. This defines the average length of all finite elements in the region if the Mesh Type = Uniform, or the average length of elements on boundaries if the Mesh Type = Graded.
6. Mesh Type - the default Mesh Type is Uniform for an advanced mesh region. This will create a uniform mesh within the selected region. The size of the elements is determined by the Element Length. You can also choose Mesh Type = Graded. In this case, the Element Length determines the length of elements on the model boundaries within the region, but the mesh will be graded away from the boundaries. The Graded mesh type is equivalent to the method used in Phase2 version 7.0 (and earlier) for advanced discretization regions.

NOTE:

• Advanced Mesh Regions are preserved even if the mesh is reset with the Remove Mesh option. When you re-mesh the model, the advanced mesh regions will still exist.
• To delete advanced mesh regions use the Delete option in the Mesh Setup dialog.

Developer Tip

See the Advanced Mesh Regions developer tip for an article which describes how to combine graded and uniform meshing.