Having described reasonable part of the model geometry you can start building the finite element mesh. It is important to remember that the mesh you build even for a highly complex geometry can be rather non-uniform. Namely, you can set the size of mesh elements in some of the model blocks to be much less than in the other blocks. In such cases the meshing technology we call geometric decomposition will automatically produce smooth transition from large to small elements of the mesh. As a rule, the places where the mesh has to be the finest are those with the highest field gradient and those where you need higher precision.
In case of simple model geometry we suggest to leave calculation of element sizes to QuickField. The same applies to the case of preliminary design analysis when draft precision should perfectly suit your needs. Click the Build Mesh toolbar button and QuickField will automatically generate suitable mesh.
It might happen, however, that the quality of the automatically generated mesh would not satisfy you. For such cases, QuickField provides you with the way to set the mesh density manually. You control the mesh density defining mesh spacing values for particular model vertices. The mesh spacing value defined for a vertex specifies the approximate distance between adjacent mesh nodes in the neighborhood of the vertex. You never need to define the spacing for all model vertices. To obtain a uniform mesh it would be enough to set the spacing for a single vertex. If you need non-uniform mesh start with defining the spacing values only for the vertices where you need the finest and the roughest mesh. The spacing values will be automatically interpolated to other model vertices smoothing the mesh density distribution across the meshed blocks. Use selection mechanism to simplify assigning the same mesh spacing value to several vertices at once.
With spacing values in place you are ready to build the mesh and eventually solve your problem.
In some cases the obtained solution results might show that you need more precise results in some places of the model. This is the good reason to change the density of your mesh. Doing that, do not forget the following:
When you change the spacing value for a vertex, QuickField automatically removes the mesh from all blocks adjacent to this vertex.
The spacing values defined along the boundaries of the blocks retaining their mesh will be frozen as if they were defined manually.
Related Topics
Mesh Spacing
Building Mesh
Removing Mesh