Meshing Techniques: Common Workflows

This article is intended to provide tips and tricks for common meshing applications by suggesting common workflows for different parts. 

Parts with Lattices, TPMS Structures, or Generally High Surface Areas

The following procedure is recommended when meshing a TPMS/lattice structure.

• Voxel Grid from Implicit 
  Voxel size: Should be ⅓ diameter of beams or wall thickness of TPMS in order to capture all of the part's details. Note that voxelization doesn't preserve sharp edges and corners.

• Mesh from Voxel Grid 
  Adaptivity: If there are large flat surfaces enter a value closer to 1, if the feature size is uniform around the part, no adaptivity is required. 

• Simplify Mesh by Threshold
  This is only required if the mesh is too large for printing/exporting. Adjust the threshold value between 0 and 1  to approximate manufacturing tolerance.

Parts for Structural Analysis / Topology Optimization 

When creating a mesh from a simulation, it depends on how complex the starting geometry is. If it's simple, start with Mesh from Implicit, if it is complex, follow the Voxel Grid method from above. 

• Mesh from Implicit
  Feature size: ⅓ smallest feature
  Adaptivity: toggle between 0 and 1. Closer to 1 should provide denser mesh around the holes/perforations and less dense mesh on flatter surfaces.
  

• Remesh Surface
  Enter a target mesh edge length for simulation (most likely the same as the voxel size). Check out this article for more tips on Remesh Surface.

• Volume Mesh 
  Enter the same mesh edge length as in the Remesh Surface block. Keeping the same edge length allows for easier creation.

• If Volume Mesh fails, use Robust Tetrahedral Mesh
  Try increasing the Tolerance input if too slow.

Parts with Many Perforations/Holes

The following is a workflow for meshing parts with many holes/perforations.

• Mesh from Implicit
  Feature size: ⅓ hole diameter.
  Adaptivity: toggle between 0 and 1. Closer to 1 should provide denser mesh around the holes/perforations and less dense mesh on flatter surfaces.

• Simplify Mesh by Amount / Simplify Mesh by Threshold
  Amount: Toggle between 0 and 1. The closer to one, the smaller the triangle count will be and file size for export, however, you may lose feature quality as well.