Suppose I have a part with a potentially complex geometry (curved faces, etc.) I don't know a priori that I want to mesh via the Abaqus Python Interface without any manual work. For now, I don't care about the quality of the mesh that is generated.

Right now, my approach is to use the Free meshing technique, pick a global element size heuristically, pick a very small deviation factor for the elements, and pick a very small minimum size factor for the elements (see seedPartInstance() in the Abaqus Python Interface documentation). Even still, I observe that meshing often fails due to problems in regions of the part with complex geometry.

Is there an alternative approach that might work better than my current technique?

This situation may sound odd to some folks. To give more context, I'm developing an application that searches for good CNC tool paths by simulating the consequences of potential tool paths in Abaqus. As part of this application, I generate many potential tool paths (via some optimization algorithms, so I don't know the tool path geometries apriori) and simulate them happening in Abaqus. Meshing often fails in this process because of complex geometries.