What mesh generation software do you use?

Mesh generators, CAD programs, and other tools

What mesh generation software do you use with Elmer?

ElmerGUI (netgen or tetgen plugins)
12
9%
Gmsh
61
44%
Netgen
13
9%
ElmerGrid (native .grd format)
11
8%
GiD
1
1%
Ansys
3
2%
Gambit
0
No votes
Comsol Multiphysics
2
1%
Salome
29
21%
Something else (please specify)
7
5%
 
Total votes: 139

raback
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What mesh generation software do you use?

Post by raback »

Dear Elmer Users,

Elmer software suite does not include proper mesh generation tools for complex geometries. Therefore people use a large variety of different meshing tools. To get an overall picture of the most commonly used tools would be interesting and hence I decided to put up this poll. Also if you are using some unsupported mesh generator for which you would like to have a parser, this would be a good place to cast the votes.

-Peter
petroo
Posts: 148
Joined: 13 Jan 2010, 19:07
Location: Aachen, Germany

Re: What mesh generation software do you use?

Post by petroo »

Hello Peter,

independent of what I like to create my meshes in myself, I would love to see explicitly documented paths for most of the other generators in your list: I guess most of us will eventually cooperate with other FEM simulation users that employ other softwares and are therefore oriented to other mesh formats.

For myself I can count this as a problem in the direction of ANSYS Fluent users. We were not able to transfer their meshes for a test computation to Elmer.

Regards,

Peter
narejo123
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Joined: 06 May 2012, 13:20
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Urgent: What mesh generation software do you use?

Post by narejo123 »

I have been trying ELmer since last couple of months. I am able to run examples given in Elmer tutorials document.
I need to generate user defined meshes for my own structures now.

Please advise me about the mesh generation procedure for user defined structures. Can we edit/modify/make our own meshes in Elmer. If not then what is the clean way to do this.

Thanks,

Dr GB
shivaprasada k v
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Joined: 11 Aug 2012, 08:26
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Re: What mesh generation software do you use?

Post by shivaprasada k v »

i am using hypermesh to mesh complex geometry but in elmer its not possible to import hm files.......
non-CAD-guy
Posts: 4
Joined: 29 Aug 2012, 12:08
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Re: What mesh generation software do you use?

Post by non-CAD-guy »

finding a way to mesh my problems is/was/has been an ordeal.
I generally find documentation and usability for open source meshers very limited. I started with netgen which I used for a very simple problem. I liked it because of its direct ELmer mesh export. For a more refined problem I then had to resort to Salome, which in itself is very powerful, but difficult to handle. It exports UNV, which I then had to unv2gmsh and then gmsh2Elemer before I could use it. UNV has a problem with pyramids though, so I'm still trying to find a way to properly get my mesh into Elmer.
I would like to see an export module from Salome to Elmer. Salome is powerful and good for preprocessing.
raback
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Joined: 22 Aug 2009, 11:57
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Location: Espoo, Finland
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Re: What mesh generation software do you use?

Post by raback »

Hi

Basically unv import should be supported. The problem is just that the unv files come in so many flavours that it is difficult to make a robust parser. Could you provide minimalistic unv files with description what kind of elements they include (and a screenshot). Then I could try to figure out the problems, time permmiting.

-Peter
du111cwct
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Re: What mesh generation software do you use?

Post by du111cwct »

tetgen is a very strong mesh generation tool,but sometimes there is a little trouble in compiling it
Coco
Posts: 16
Joined: 01 Apr 2015, 09:01
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Re: What mesh generation software do you use?

Post by Coco »

Hello Peter,
I want to use ABAQUS to generate mesh.
In the document it says ElmerGrid can transform .inp or .fil to .grd or .mesh.
I have a try,but it doesn't work.
I find that sometimes ElmerGUI can open .inp,but sometimes it can't, eventhough .inp no change.
Could you give me some help?
Thanks.
Vaclav
Posts: 4
Joined: 09 Oct 2015, 14:31
Antispam: Yes
Location: Czech Republic

Re: What mesh generation software do you use?

Post by Vaclav »

I tried "blockMesh" or another tool within OpenFOAM-Extended Project, then it is possible to convert the mesh using tool "foamMeshToElmer". Worked very well for me.
mark smith
Posts: 215
Joined: 26 Aug 2009, 18:20
Location: Peterborough, England

Anyone using Femap for meshing?

Post by mark smith »

Hi
I am currently evaluating Femap as a pre-processor and wondered if anyone is using it for Elmer & if so what format should you export the mesh to successfully convert it to elmer format using elmergrid or any other tool?
Regards
Mark
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