Refinement controls specify the maximum number of times you want an initial mesh to be refined. You can specify refinement controls for faces, edges, and vertices.
To insert a refinement control:
Click Mesh on the Tree Outline.
Do one of the following:
Right-click and select Insert> Refinement from the context menu.
Click on the Context Toolbar and select Refinement from the drop-down list.
In the Details View, scope the geometry whose mesh you want to be refined.
Specify a Refinement value between 1 (minimum refinement) and 3 (maximum refinement). If you attach several controls to the same entity, the last control applied takes precedence.
Some refinement controls can override or affect other refinement controls that have been applied to connected topology. A face refinement control overrides a refinement control on any of the face's edges or vertices. An edge refinement control overrides a refinement control on either of the edge's vertices. Basically, a refinement control will lower the value of an overridden control by its own value.
For example, consider a face refinement control with a refinement value of 1, where one of the face's edges has a refinement control with a value of 2, and one of the edge's vertices has a refinement control with a value of 2. In this example, the face refinement control reduces the value of the edge refinement control by 1, and it also reduces the value of the vertex refinement control by 1. The edge refinement control now has a value of 1, so it reduces the vertex's refinement control by 1. Now the vertex refinement control has a value of zero, which essentially means the refinement control has no effect.
Note:
Refinement controls are not available for the MultiZone, Patch Independent Tetra, or MultiZone Quad/Tri mesh methods. If you are using the Automatic Method and you have enabled the Use MultiZone for Sweepable Bodies option, refinement controls on sweepable bodies behave similarly to how they behave when the Sweep mesh method is used.
In the following scenarios, refinement controls are automatically suppressed:
When automatic inflation (either Program Controlled or All Faces in Chosen Named Selection) is used with refinement in the same model.
When local inflation is used with refinement in the same body or in the same part.
If you apply a refinement control to a part that was either swept meshed or hex dominant meshed, and then you delete the refinement control, the intermediate tetrahedral mesh will be retained unless you invalidate the state of the part (for example, by clearing the database). An intermediate tetrahedral mesh is created when you try to refine non-tetrahedral solid elements.
Refinement controls are not supported on shared faces between solid bodies and sheet bodies in a multibody part.
Refinement controls are not supported for Mixed Order Meshing.
Special processing of refinement operations occurs when you use the Mesh worksheet to create a selective mesh history. Refer to Using the Mesh Worksheet to Create a Selective Meshing History for details.