Edge Fillets

This option can be used to remove any edge fillets on a free surface edge. HyperMesh can identify
these fillets given a range of fillet radii and a minimum arc angle. Using these filtering options, you
can find the fillets in your model and then remove them.

To remove fillets:

1. Retrieve the hm file defeature.hm.

2. Go to geom page and defeature panel.
3. Go to edge fillets subpanel.
4. Click on surfs and select the end surface in the extreme +X and –Z direction of the model. Set
the radius and angle values as follows: Min radius = 5.0; Max radius = 15.000; Min angle =
15.000.
5. Click find. The fillets will be identified with a blue F and lines indicating the beginning and ending
points of tangency of the fillets.
6. Select both of the fillets to be removed. Alternately, click the fillets button and select all from the
pop up list.
7. Click remove to eliminate the fillets by projecting the surface edges from the point of tangency
until they intersect.

Figure 3: Use the edge fillet function to identify and remove rounded corners on free-surface edges.

Altair Engineering HyperMesh Tutorials 57

Trim-Intersect
The trim intersect function works like the edge fillet function, except the points of tangency are
specified by clicking on the free-surface edge.

To trim points:

1. Rotate the model to center the view to the end surface in the most –X and –Z direction.
2. Select the trim-intersect subpanel.
st
3. With the blue box highlighting node under 1 edge trim location:, select the trim point (point of
tangency) for one of the edge fillets, as shown in the figure below.

Figure 4: Click on points of tangency of the edge fillets to square off rounded corners on free-surface edges.

4. Select the second point of tangence for this edge fillet.

Note: In this panel, HM is expecting a point to be defined on a surface edge. A temporary node
will be created. After selecting the second point, the trimming and de-filleting operation
will occur.

5. Repeat these steps for the remaining free-edge fillets.

Note: Using a size 10 quad plate element, compare the resulting mesh for the defeatured
model to the original model.

6. Click return to go back to the main menu.

7. Go to the automesh panel on the 2-D page.
8. In the create mesh subpanel, click the surfs box and select all.

58 HyperMesh Tutorials Altair Engineering

9. Click the toggle next to interactive and select the automatic mode.
10. Click mesh to generate the mesh.

Figure 5: Size 10 quad plate mesh after defeaturing the part.

Figure 6: Size 10 quad plate mesh without defeaturing the part.

Altair Engineering HyperMesh Tutorials 59

 Note: In these excersises, we used the functions in the defeature panel to simplify the
geometry of a small part. The remove trim lines function was used to eliminate two
rectangular cut outs on the top surface. The surface fillet function was used to remove
the curved fillets where the top surface transitioned to the sides. Edge fillet and Trim-
intersect were used to square off the end surfaces. The results of these operations will
yield a more regular, geometric mesh.

60 HyperMesh Tutorials Altair Engineering

Automesh Module - HM-135L
The automesh module has the ability to automatically mesh specified surfaces given an element
edge length. The module also has the ability to interactively select and mesh multiple surfaces. It
can increase biasing, density, change mesh parameters, and element types all before accepting the
mesh. Once the mesh is created, the remesh button can be used to re-mesh the surfaces.

The following exercises are included:

 Layout of Automesh panel
 The Use of Automeshing Modules and Remesh Function
 Cleanup Surface and Add Fixed Points
 Refine Element Quality by Remeshing Elements

File Needed:

 Cleaned_Up-Geom.hm31

Layout of Automesh Panel

The automesh panel includes six sub-panels : create mesh, mesh params, cleanup, add points,
remove points, and proj to edge.

Figure 1 – Create Mesh subpanel

There are two options in the create mesh sub-panel. The toggle allows you to alternate between the
interactive and automatic selection. The default is interactive. The interactive option is used to
automesh multiple surfaces or elements with user-controlled parameters. Once a surface or a group
of elements have been selected for the automeshing module, the information is retained and updated
with any changes to meshing parameters while in the automeshing module. The next time the
selected entity, either surfaces or a group of elements, is brought into the automeshing module, the
saved data is used unless the reset mesh parameters to: button is selected, in which case the old
information is discarded and new values are computed.

The meshing parameters can be set to either element size with element shape or use mesh
params. When the mesh params option is used, the mesh can be created by use chordal
deviation mesh or use size and biasing. This tutorial uses the element size option. The options
when using use mesh params are illustrated in tutorials HM-140 and HM-141.

The toggle between elements to current comp and elements to surface’s comp tells HyperMesh
where these newly created elements should be located. You can put created elements in the
associated surface components or the global current working component where you define them.
After clicking the green mesh button, the automeshing module will be displayed allowing you to
adjust element density and biasing of all the shared and free edges belonging to the selected

Altair Engineering HyperMesh Tutorials 61

surfaces, change element type, and perform quality checks. Once the elements are created, you
may select surfaces that contain bad elements or a group of elements, and you can refine them by
clicking the remesh button. HyperMesh will first delete the existing elements and then re-mesh the
selected entity.

The highlight surfs button, below the find mesh error, directs HyperMesh to scan through all the
selected surfaces for mesh and highlight those failed in creating meshes in your last attempt.

If you select to refine a group of elements by changing the switch from surfs to elems, you can
decide whether you want to break connectivity between the selected group of elements and the rest
of the elements by activating a small check mark in front of the break connectivity option.

The Automatic panel has the same features as the interactive panel. The only difference is it
creates elements on surfaces without bringing up the automeshing modules.

The Mesh params sub-panel is divided into two parts. The left part contains options and settings
for use chordal deviation meshing algorithm described in HM-141. The right part contains options
for the use size and biasing meshing algorithm described in tutorial HM-140.

Figure 2 – Mesh Parameters subpanel, Use size and biasing.

Figure 3 – Mesh Parameters subpanel, Use chordal deviation.

The cleanup sub-panel consists of four features: split surf, unsplit surf, replace points, and
toggle. Split surf has the same function as trim with two nodes located at the surface edit panel.
After choosing two nodes on a selected surface, HyperMesh creates a line between these two
nodes, and uses this line to trim the selected surface at the normal direction.

Unsplit surf has the same function as remove interior trim lines in the surface edit panel. This
feature not only removes trim lines from associated surfaces, but also deletes them from the model.
A useful example of this feature is to remove pinholes. Replace points has the same function as
replace points in the geom cleanup panel. The details of using this function are described in
tutorial HM-130-Geometry Clean Up. Toggle has the same function as edge/toggle in the geom
cleanup panel. The detail of using this function is also described in the tutorial HM-130-Geometry
Clean Up.

62 HyperMesh Tutorials Altair Engineering

Figure 4 – Cleanup subpanel

The Add points has the same function as the add points subpanel in the geom cleanup panel. It
creates fixed points from free points or nodes, and makes those fixed points associated with the
selected surfaces. The detail of using this function is described in the tutorial HM-130-Geometry
Clean Up.

Figure 5 – Add Points subpanel

The Remove points subpanel has the same function as the suppress points subpanel in the
geomcleanup panel. It deletes unnecessary fixed points or converts fixed points to free points. The
detail of using this function is described in the tutorial HM-130-Geometry Clean Up.

Figure 5.5 – Remove Points subpanel

The Proj to edge sub-panel will locate all interior fixed points on a set of surfaces, then project each
of these points to the nearest (perpendicular) edge location on its own surface only. This produces
mesh patterns that are more regular in appearance.

The distance tolerance and angle tolerance are parameters used to control creation of fixed points.
If the shortest distance between an edge and an interior fixed point is less than or equal to the
distance tolerance, a fixed point will be created on the edge. If the angle ABC, formed by an existing
fixed point on an edge (A), the fixed point to-be-created (B) and the interior fixed point (C), is less
than the angle tolerance, a fixed point will not be created.

Figure 6 – Project to Edge subpanel

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The Use of Automeshing Modules and Remesh Function
In this exercise you will first interactively mesh selected surfaces, then apply various automeshing
modules, remesh selected surfaces, and finally delete all the elements using remesh button.

To retrieve the Cleaned_Up_Geom.hm31 file and display surf ids:

1. Retrieve the Clean_Up_Geom.hm31 file.

 Enter the files panel on any page of the main menu.
 Click hm file and file = cleaned_up_geom.hm31.
 Click retrieve to clear current session and pull up the file.
 Click return to exit the panel and return to main menu.
2. Display all the surface IDs.
 Enter the numbers panel under Tool page.
 Change selection to surfs.
 Click surfs to bring up the extended entity selection window.
 Select all surfaces in figure.
 Click the on button.

Figure 7

64 HyperMesh Tutorials Altair Engineering

To interactively automesh and use the automeshing module:

1. Go to the global panel, set the currents: comp = bottom, enter element size=2.0 and click
return. The element type is kept as the default setting, quad.
2. Enter the automesh panel through 2D page and go to the create mesh subpanel. Make sure the
toggle remains in interactive.
3. Switch from elements to current comp to elements to surface’s comp.
4. Select surfs and select surface id 6, and 7 (see Figure 7).
5. Click mesh. The automesh modules including density, algorithm, type, biasing, details, and
checks will be displayed in the main menu area.
6. Click mesh button and review the temporary mesh.
Note: Select the checks panel, and then click on warpage panel to check warpage value.
Notice that the maximum warpage found is equal to 35.21.

7. Click the radio button in front of algorithm module to activate the function.
Note: The small square icons on the center of surface id 6 and 7 indicate that HyperMesh will
use mapped as rectangle meshing algorithm to create the mesh.

8. Change the meshing algorithm:

 Click mesh button and review the temporary mesh setting.
 Click the switch below the meshing algorithm and choose free (unmapped).
Note: The free (unmapped) option allows HyperMesh to mesh freely.
 Move the mouse and click the square icon located at the center of surface id 6. The icon will
show the new meshing algorithm.
 Click on mesh again and examine how the mesh changes.
Note: Select the checks panel, and then click on warpage panel to check warpage value.
Notice that now the maximum warpage found is equal to 6.12. Which is a significant
improvement if compared to the previous value 35.21 by using mapped as rectangle
meshing algorithm.
 Click the switch below the meshing algorithm and choose mapped as triangle.
 Move the mouse and click the square icon located at the center of surface id 6. The icon will
change to a triangle shape.
 Click on mesh and examine the error appeared on the menu bar.
Note: The mapped as triangle algorithm should be applied to a surface with three sides only.
The mapped as pentagon algorithm should be applied to a surface with five sides only.
 Repeat the same steps to change the meshing algorithm back to autodecide.
 Click set all button on the right side of meshing algorithm. This step is to apply autodecide
option on all the selected surfaces.
 Click mesh button.
9. Change the smoothing algorithm:
 Click the switch below the smoothing algorithm and choose shape corrected.
 Click set all button to apply the algorithm to all the selected surfaces.
 Click smooth button and examine the change of the mesh.

Altair Engineering HyperMesh Tutorials 65