The 3D Mesh to Geometry Plug-in allows Abaqus FEA users to generate geometry from mesh files. This plug-in converts .STL files and meshes back to geometry in order to remesh the structure, as well as importing into a variety of CAD packages.
Detailed Information
With the 3D Mesh to Geometry Plug-in, users can create a geometry representation of an orphan mesh within Abaqus/CAE. The geometry-file will be written in ACIS-format (.SAT) and essentially consists of triangular faces corresponding to the outer faces of the original mesh. If required, the geometry repair options and/or virtual topology allow the user to clean the geometry.
The plugin provides two categories of capabilities:
- Ability to import STL files into Abaqus/CAE to create geometry.
- Ability to use a deformed mesh from an Abaqus analysis as the basis for geometry to be meshed for another Abaqus analysis.
The plugin was created several years ago by the SIMULIA Benelux office as part of an adaptive meshing consulting project. At that time, Abaqus/CAE itself did not have either of these capabilities. However, there is now built-in functionality in Abaqus/CAE to do what this external “plugin” does. So you may not need the plugin, depending on what you are looking to do. There is a subtle difference in how the external plugin works compared to the built-in functionality when converting element faces to geometry. (Capability #2 above). When using the plugin, the process of selecting deformed element faces for creating new geometry is automated. When using the Abaqus/CAE built-in functionality, the user selects the element faces in Abaqus/CAE to be converted to geometry. When using the plugin, the user gets one surface per free element face. (Which could mean a very large number of surfaces created.) When using built-in functionality, the user can select multiple element faces per geometry surface created. So, depending on the situation, sometimes using the built-in capability is more appropriate, and sometimes using the plugin in better.
The plugin is provided "as-is" and technical support is not provided. Several versions of the plugin are available for download here – be sure to download the version of the plugin that matches the version of Abaqus that you are using.
Attached to this SLC post are two movie files demonstrating the use of the plug-in.
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3D Mesh to Geometry plugin for Abaqus 2024x v2.2 |
3D Mesh to Geometry plugin for Abaqus pre-2024 (based on Python 2.7) v2.2 |
3D Mesh to Geometry plugin for Abaqus 2024x (for Python 3 update) |
3D Mesh to Geometry plugin 2020 |
3D Mesh to Geometry plugin 613 |
