Preview Editable Meshes

[ntjacobs]

I was wondering if it is possible to add some functionality to the mesh editing features in Preview. While I realize Preview is not intended for complicated meshing, I think this could improve the usefulness while possibly not being too complicated.

What I would like to do is be able delete parts of primitive objects before making the mesh editable, or, to be able to refine the mesh density after making a mesh editable.

As an example, I want to model a cruciform biaxial experiment. To do this, I currently start by creating a box and meshing it. Then, I delete corners of the box to get the cruciform shape I desire. The problem is that to delete the corners I have to make it editable. This means that in order to refine the mesh if I need to in another run (make it more dense, or bias the mesh near the grips) I have to start all over because I cannot re-mesh the editable mesh.

It would be great to be able to delete the corners of the box to get my target shape and still be able to change the mesh density after that. Is this something that is possible to implement?

[maas]

Hi Nathan,

We are planning on adding more advanced geometry tools in PreView. In fact, I am working on a new geometry engine in FEBio that will allow you to do things like you describe. However, it is still in a very early development stage, so I can't give you any release date yet. I hope to have a first version up and running by next spring, but take this with a grain of salt.

Cheers,

Steve.

[michalacadova]

Hi,
I wanted to ask if there are some “crucial” improvements in the mesh editor in the new preview 1.7.1?

I was wondering if there is a way how to select just part of the face of an object (for the boundary condition) and not changing the mesh to “editable mesh”? Usually what happens when I see my results is that I decide to make the mesh more dense, but then I have to set everything from scratch (boundary conditions, loading, etc.) since these are dependent on the mesh.

Thanks
Michala