It is often found that one is not able to mesh a geometry in FW. What are the options to try out?

Please check the imported geometry for geometrical problems (the geometry can be from any CAD package). This can be done, immediately after importing the CAD file in FW, through Tools-->Geometry-->Check . If you find geometrical errors reported there, then you can try repairing and smoothing it through Tools-->Geometry-->repair or Tools-->Geometry-->smooth. Then check the geometry again. You may want to try the repair/smooth operations 3-4 times to see if geometrical problems are eliminated or not.

o If the above operations doesn't help to overcome the geometrical problems, then Use Repair option at the time of the CAD file import. This option should be set in "Advanced" options, before importing the CAD file. The Advanced options are available in Geometry Import panel below "Units" field. Once the advanced option is set ON, import the CAD file again and check for geometrical problems. If you find geometrical problems, you may want to do the repair/smooth operations again till the errors are eliminated.

o If there are no geometrical problems then, you might want to change the Speed /Accuracy settings to see if there is any impact on mesh generation process. By default the Speed -Accuracy slider bar is at the middle (which signifies 50% level of accuracy/speed). Try to play with this slider bar and check whether you are able to mesh the geometry at some other speed-accuracy settings or not.

o If the above doesn't help, then perhaps, there is some problems while geometry clean up. Its appears that during geometry clean up FW gets a sliver face which is not getting meshed by the meshing algorithm. The sliver face can be due to the critical length specification. Thus, Can you please try the following?

--> Try using the following command before attempting to mesh the geometry in FW command prompt, which is available below the graphics screen.

mesh.modifySettings(meshAlgorithm= 'manifold')

--> Use unknown clean up option for meshing.

--> Try meshing by setting the clean up option to "Yes". It is found that the small/critical length specified in the GUI panel is not taken by FW clean up algorithm due to a bug in FW-1.0.8. This bug has been fixed in FW-1.1. The min length edges in the geometry can be found out by hitting "Guide Me" key in front of the critical length specifications. Thus try using the following command in FW command prompt, to specify the critical length. Specify a value larger than the min length of the edge in the geometry.

geom.modifySettings(simplifySmallLength=2)

--> Try to group the wall zones in some small section instead of specifying one complete wall zone. This can affect the geometry clean up.

o I believe that you are getting error only while generating volume mesh. If this is the case, then FW must be able to mesh the boundaries of the geometry completely. Then please display the mesh on the boundaries through View-->Show mesh on boundaries. If all the boundary faces are getting meshed completely then you can try issuing the following command to specify the meshing size with which FW should try meshing the volume.

mesh.volume.mesh(names= 'volume.1", tetrahedral=True,size=0.1)

Here, the above command tells FW to mesh volume.1 using tet mesh with size = 0.1. A similar command can be used to attempt meshing if all the above options fail and only surface/boundary mesh is available.

I hope the above tips help you in getting a decent volume mesh.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Aashish,