Tetra Meshing

The Tetra mesher generates tetrahedral volume meshes directly from the CAD geometry or stereo-lithography (STL) data, without requiring an initial triangular surface mesh—you have only to select the geometry to be meshed.

The Tetra mesher can use different meshing algorithms to fill the volume with tetrahedral elements and to generate a surface mesh on the object surfaces. You can define prescribed curves and points to determine the positions of edges and vertices in the mesh. For improved element quality, the Tetra mesher incorporates a powerful smoothing algorithm, as well as tools for local adaptive mesh refinement and coarsening.

Features of Tetra Meshing

The Tetra mesher is suitable for complex geometries and offers:

  • Rapid model setup

  • Mesh independent of underlying surface topology

  • No surface mesh necessary

  • Generation of mesh directly from CAD or STL surfaces

  • Definition of element size on CAD or STL surfaces

  • Control over element size inside a volume

  • Nodes and edges of tetrahedra are matched to prescribed points and curves

  • Curvature/Proximity Based Refinement automatically determines tetrahedra size for individual geometry features

  • Volume and surface mesh smoothing, merging nodes and swapping edges

  • Tetrahedral mesh can be merged into another tetra, hexa, or hybrid mesh and then can be smoothed

  • Coarsening of individual material domains

  • Enforcement of mesh periodicity, both rotational and translational

  • Surface mesh editing and diagnostic tools

  • Local adaptive mesh refinement and coarsening

  • One consistent mesh for multiple materials

  • Fast algorithm

  • Automatic detection of holes and easy ways to repair the mesh.

Note:

  • Tetra meshing is not efficient for capturing shear or boundary layer physics. To mesh for such situations, choose a method that supports inflation layers and prisms. See Prism Meshing.

  • Tetra meshing creates an unstructured mesh of tetrahedral cells. For a structured, multi-block approach or an unstructured mesh of hexahedral cells, see Hexa Meshing.

The tetra meshing chapter includes the following sections.