Product: Abaqus/CAE
Benefits: Many of the modeling and meshing tools in Abaqus/CAE have been enhanced to support use with both geometry and orphan nodes and elements. You can now add geometric features to an orphan mesh. You can also use some mesh editing options that were previously limited to use with orphan elements to modify native meshes. Likewise, some procedures that were previously limited to use with geometry now allow selection of orphan mesh features. The options that you have available to modify a part or assembly are greatly expanded with this change in modeling techniques.
Description: The distinctions between a native, or geometry-based, model and an orphan mesh model have been reduced so that tools and techniques previously available for use with only one of these model types can now be used universally. Orphan nodes and elements, geometry, and native nodes and elements can now exist within a single part. Previously, when you worked with an orphan mesh, you could use the mesh editing tools to modify the mesh, but it could be difficult to make significant changes to the model. Now you can select an orphan element face as the sketch plane for the creation of new geometry. Likewise, some of the tools in the Edit Mesh toolset that were previously available only for use with an orphan mesh—such as the Offset tool—can now also be used to modify a native mesh. Other tools are available to work with the new combined models, but you can use them only with the suitable portions of the mesh. For example, the merge and subdivide layer mesh tools can be used in a combined model, but you can use them only on the orphan elements.
Other enhancements related to this change include:
Revision of the bottom-up meshing tools to extend the mesh of geometry-based parts by adding orphan elements
Merging part instances that include both geometry and mesh components
Allowance for the use of datum planes and element faces in addition to geometry faces on the target side of a bottom-up swept mesh
Projection of nodes and element edges onto sketches
Manual association of three-dimensional elements with geometric cells
Association of element faces, element edges, and nodes with geometry
Deletion of mesh-geometry association
To avoid confusion, elements are still colored according to their source; orphan elements are colored green, and native mesh elements are colored cyan.
Note: The usages and references listed below are a sample of some of the more significant changes. Many other procedures have been updated to incorporate selection of both geometry and orphan mesh items.
Part module: ShapeSolid