Selecting the Blocking Technique

In the Mesh Options panel, select a Blocking technique to use in meshing the model.


To...	Select...	Description...
Generate the mesh using automatic decomposition.	Blocking = Automatic	This decomposition uses tetrahedra for the free blocks, hexahedra for the mapped blocks, and hex-dominant (Mechanical) or all-hexahedra (Explicit, beta) for the swept blocks. All non-sweepable/non-mappable blocks are free meshed without any further decomposition.
Generate a tetrahedral mesh in a single, editable block.	Element shape = Tetrahedral and Triangle Blocking = Free	This option should generate an all tetrahedral mesh, plus it will generate one free block (volume) for the entire body. Block editing tools are available for advanced defeaturing or model cleanup if meshing fails.
Generate a hex dominant mesh in a single, editable block.	Element shape = Hexahedral , and Quadrilateral Dominant or All Quadrilateral Blocking = Free	This option will generate a hex dominant mesh on the entire body. It will generate one free block (volume) for the entire body. Block editing tools are available for advanced defeaturing or model cleanup if meshing fails.
Generate a MultiZone mesh with editable blocking topology, where sweepable regions are filled with a prism (wedge) mesh and non-sweepable (free) regions are filled with tet volume mesh.	Element shape = Tetrahedral and Triangle Blocking = Standard	The software first attempts to create swept mesh with source faces meshed as triangles (volume elements are prisms/wedges). Any region that cannot be swept is meshed with a tetrahedron mesh (Free block). If swept and free blocks share a common interface and the interface is a source face to the swept mesh, then no pyramids will be created. If swept and free blocks share a common interface and the interface is a side face to the swept mesh, then pyramids will be created in the free block.
	Element shape = Tetrahedral and Triangle Blocking = Aggressive	This option is similar to Standard, but the software tries to generate more mapped faces.
Generate a MultiZone mesh with editable blocking topology, where sweepable regions are filled with a hex mesh and free regions are filled with hex-dominant volume mesh.	Element shape = Hexahedral , and Quadrilateral Dominant or All Quadrilateral Blocking = Standard	The software first creates mapped, then swept, then free blocks as possible. A higher proportion of mapped blocks results in a higher proportion of hexahedral mesh. For sweepable models, all blocks that are created should be mapped or swept. For models where the blocking is not straightforward, free blocks with a combination of free and mapped faces are created on the non-sweepable regions. Note: The software attempts to mesh Axisymmetric cases with Multizone mesh in the standard way. In case of failure, set the defeature size to a value other than the default value. This will force the software to create a revolved profile blocking. This feature requires that all faces in the body to be 360 degree fully revolved but edges could be split.
	Element shape = Hexahedral , and Quadrilateral Dominant or All Quadrilateral Blocking = Aggressive	This option is very similar to Standard, but the software tries to generate more mapped faces. For some cases this may help create more mapped or swept blocks. In other cases, it may not help with the blocking, but it may result in more mapped faces attached to free blocks.
Generate an all hexahedral volume mesh in a single, mapped block requiring manual block editing.	Blocking = Bounding Box	This top-down approach creates a single, mapped block from the 3D bounding box. You then use block editing tools such as split, merge, move, and associate to shape the blocking topology to the simulation model.
Generate a hex-dominant volume mesh for axis-aligned geometries.	Blocking = CartSweep	This approach works best for geometries that are axis aligned. The approach is to generate a Cartesian mesh, convert that Cartesian mesh to sweepable topologies and smooth it out. Next you can use the block editing tools to improve the mesh.
Generate a hexahedral mesh for geometries recognized as having thin-walled solids.	Blocking = ThinSweep	This approach works best for meshing geometries recognized as having thin-walled solids, as an alternative to using the typical approach with Standard blocking. The software first detects sweep source and target surfaces. Then the 2D blocking is created on the source surfaces, and finally pulled to 3D and associated to the target surfaces in an automatic fashion.
Reuse a previously saved blocking topology file (*.blk).	Blocking = Load	This option is useful when you with to reuse a blocking topology on a modified geometry. After selecting Load, you will select the geometry to which the blocking topology is associated and then click Complete. A window opens to select the blocking file. The software will attempt to associate the blocking topology to the selected geometry and generate the mesh. Some manual repair and blocking disassociation/reassociation may be necessary. You can enable Improve Association, if required. This option is disabled by default. When the Improve Association option is enabled, the blocking edge to curve associations are improved when the blocking is loaded.

Notes:

When the initial mesh and blocking topology are computed, you will see Blocking objects in the Structure tree. For details, see Understanding the blocking structure.
If creating a blocking on multiple parts and using the Blocking = Free, Standard, or Aggressive options, the Connect tolerance option will be used to keep the mesh conformal between parts. For more information see Conformal Meshing between Bodies.
You can perform manual mesh and block editing using tools described in Edit the mesh and Edit the blocking.
In some situations it may be useful to selectively mesh the faces of your model before converting the surface mesh to a solid mesh. Where a surface being meshed shares an edge with a previously meshed surface and within the specified Connect tolerance, the mesh is made conformal. You can iteratively mesh one or more faces and edit the meshes until the entire surface is meshed, then use the right mouse button context menu on Blocking in the Structure tree to Solidify the blocking and mesh.