Gambit 2.

2 Tips & Tricks

Thomas Scheidegger June 8, 2004

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Outline

Data exchange with other CAD systems Construction and clean-up tools Meshing tools Miscellaneous tips and tricks

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Data exchange with other CAD Systems

CAD data import Checking connectivity Checking real geometry/topology Tolerant modeling Healing and smoothing real geometry Data exchange via mesh import

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CAD Data Import

New InterOP R12 translators for IGES, STEP, Parasolid, and Catia 4 (add-on) in Gambit 2.2
Warning is issued if the model size exceeds 10000 units

Geometry
ACIS (R12) Parasolid (v15.0) Catia V4 STEP (AP203/214) IGES Direct Pro/E Interface Geometry (Real/Virtual)

Mesh
I-DEAS UNV FLUENT/TGRID CGNS (v2.0) PLOT3D (formatted) ANSYS PATRAN NASTRAN Geometry (Faceted)

Faceted Geometry
I-DEAS FTL STL VRML Optegra visualizer Geometry (Faceted)

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Checking Connectivity
Check import of volumes/faces using entity based coloring
Vertices (white), edges (yellow), faces (light blue), volumes (green), groups (dark green) Virtual/faceted geometry identified by label (v_*/f_*), picking filter, and color coding
Vertices (darkkhaki), edges (peru), faces (dodgerblue), volumes (springgreen)

Check connectivity using connectivity based coloring

White: Stand-alone vertex or edge Orange: Vertex connected to only one edge, or edge connected to only one face (i.e. unconnected face!) Blue: Vertex connected to exactly two edges, or edge connected to exactly two faces (i.e. connected face) Magenta: Vertex connected to three or more edges, or edge connected to three or more faces (e.g. internal face)

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Checking Connectivity

Color by entity

Color by connectivity

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Checking Real Geometry/Topology

Checks for geometrical and topological inconsistencies
Topology problems (very rare) must be fixed before meshing Detailed reporting through change in defaults
GEOMETRY.GENERAL.REAL_GEOMETRY_CHECK_SUMMARY = 0

Geometry not C1 or G1
Indicates lack of parametric/geometric continuity Real operations (booleans, splits, sweeps) may fail Can use virtual operations as fallback Geometry errors do generally not prevent meshing. If the model can be shaded, then it can likely be meshed

How to fix problems

Fix real geometry problems by healing the unconnected entities, smoothing (new in Gambit 2.2), or by regenerating entities Fix topology problems by deleting and reconstructing entities Fix virtual/faceted geometry problems by deleting (hiding) and reconstructing entities

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Tolerant Modeling
Tolerant modeling in Gambit
Real connectivity using an automatically evaluated local tolerance value (instead of 1.0e-6 real ACIS tolerance) assigned to vertices and edges Allows use of less precise CAD data and still ensures proper topology Most construction tools (Booleans and splits) are tolerant Requires less virtual clean-up Tolerant modeling will attempt to stitch volume Make geometry tolerant
globally during geometry import
all entities can be connected Automatic sliver/short edge removal during tolerant import, controlled through defaults
GEOMETRY.TOLERANCE.HEAL_REMOVE_SLIVER_FACE = -1 GEOMETRY.TOLERANCE.HEAL_REMOVE_SHORT_EDGE = 0.001

Print out of entity labels being eliminated

controlled inside heal face/volume forms

all entities need to be disconnected before making tolerant
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Tolerant Modeling
Assigns local tolerances instead of geometry modification Tolerances based on face size or edge length (body box size). Stitching stops at maximum tolerance
Body box size < 0.01 < 0.1 < 1.0 < 10.0 > 10.0 Maximum tolerance 0.0001 0.001 0.01 0.1 1.0

Tolerant IGES import

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Healing Real Geometry

ACIS is a high precision modeler and needs all entities to satisfy stringent data integrity check Geometry imported from other CAD systems often lacks the required accuracy Healing is an operation designed to detect and correct accuracy problems in ACIS models Optional healing processes
Geometry simplification
Spline to analytic geometry conversion

Stitch faces Repair geometry

Heals inaccuracies in model

Healing always includes tolerant modeling Auto or manual tolerances

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Healing Real Geometry

Effective tool to connect (stitch) faces into a volume Face healing can result in multiple volumes
Stitch faces Stitch faces, Repair geometry

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Healing Real Geometry

Heal model
globally during geometry import
all entities can be connected no control over heal options

controlled inside heal face/volume forms

all entities need to be disconnected before healing manual control over heal options and tolerances often easier to export ACIS model and heal globally during re-import

Healing repairs geometry near boundaries. Healing does not fix geometry defects distant from edges Healing can further corrupt poor geometry. Carefully inspect and check geometry after healing!

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Smoothing Real Geometry

Geometry (edge, face) smoothing in Gambit 2.2
Smoothes discontinuous edges Reduces geometry discontinuity defects for B-spline surfaces Can aid in subsequent Boolean operations Two smoothing options
Remove discontinuities Remove G1 discontinuity (default) Reduce complexity Simplified NURB representation

Face smoothing

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Data Exchange via Mesh Import

Import of surface or volume mesh files results in faceted geometry, similar to virtual geometry
Use virtual geometry operations to work with entities Convert virtual geometry to real if needed

Effective method to clean corrupt meshable geometry

Mesh the defect geometry in Gambit with sufficiently fine spacing Assign boundary zones to faces as necessary, export mesh Import mesh back into Gambit and work with faceted geometry

Boundary types are preserved during import of mesh files into Gambit
Except periodic boundary types, periodic_shadow will have type wall Import of mesh with hanging nodes (e.g. adapted mesh, hex core mesh) is not supported PLOT 3D files with Iblanking or of binary type need to be converted to Fluent/Fidap mesh file using utility fe2ram
64-bit utility available for large mesh files
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Data Exchange via Mesh Import

Specify a Feature Angle to automatically build geometry edges based on face normal changes, i.e. the feature angle
Default feature angle is 135o Conversion based on boundary information only for feature angle 0o

Enable the angle based edge splitting option

MESH.MODIFY.EDGE_SPLIT = 1 MESH.MODIFY.EDGE_SPLIT_ANGLE = 135

Complete mesh is imported

Importing volume mesh through Surface import generates geometry from all interior face zones Delete cell zones in Tgrid first if only faces need to be imported from volume mesh

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Data Exchange via Mesh Import

Adjust imported topology using the mesh modify forms (face/volume)
Allows to split faces without loss of connected mesh
Modify meshed volume replaces old volume with new one Modify meshed face adds modified face to original face

Unclick the Keep original edge toggle to remove existing edges Use Automatic Angle to add geometry edges
Similar to feature engle during mesh import

Fine tune geometry edge definition by manually adding or deleting individual mesh edges
Spurs removed in single pick

Automatic angle: 15 deg

Automatic angle: 25 deg Additional edges added manually

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Construction and Clean-up Tools

Real (ACIS) geometry tools Real Boolean operations Imprinting Virtual geometry tools Clean-up tools Decomposing virtual geometry

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Real Face From Wireframe

Create face from wireframe
Coplanar edges
Any number of coplanar edges within ACIS tolerance can be stitched into a real face

Non-coplanar edges
Any 3 or 4 sided non-planar loop can be stitched into real face Loops with 5 or more non-planar edges can be stitched into real face if
Edge loop is convex Edges dont turn excessively

New planar tolerant real face creation in Gambit 2.2 for non-coplanar edge loops
Tolerant option ignored if ACIS is able to create non-tolerant face Maximum tolerance reported in transcript window Edges should be close to coplanar and connected Tolerance should be smaller than intended mesh size
Turn off final projection of mesh from facets to geometry if tolerance is larger than mesh size (MESH.FACE.PROJECT_TO_SURFACE = 0)

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Real Face From Wireframe

Create real face from wireframe in Gambit 2.2

Real face creation from non-coplanar edges

Tolerant real face creation from noncoplanar edges Tolerance value reported in transcript window

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Real Volume Stitch

Create volume by stitching faces in Gambit 2.2

Real tolerant face stitch with tolerance option
Automatic or manual tolerance control Tolerance should be smaller than intended mesh size

Both real and virtual creation in single step May produce unwanted short edges
Healing can be tried in place of stitching
GEOMETRY.VOLUME.SPLIT_AT_CVXTY_PTS_IN_FACE_STITCH = 0

Option to stitch single or multiple volumes

Automatic addition of missing (connected) faces for single volume Extra faces automatically discarded for multiple volumes

Single volume stitch can handle voids and dangling faces in Gambit 2.2

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Real Volume Stitch

Three possible volumes
1 2 3

Single volume
Searches automatically for missing (connected) faces Builds smallest possible volume from selected faces

Multiple volumes
Builds volumes for each watertight set of faces found Discards extra faces not belonging to a closed set

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Real Boolean Operations

Why Boolean operations can fail
Poor geometric quality, complex topology NURBS surfaces do not represent cylinders and spheres exactly. Boolean between coincident analytic and NURBS surfaces are unpredictable Difficulties in finding imprints of connected entities
Two imprinting algorithms available
GEOMETRY.VOLUME.BOOLEAN_METHOD = 0, 1

What to do if split operation of entity A with B fails

Copy/Heal option
Copy B (and heal if needed), delete the original B Perform the split operation, reconnect before meshing

Intersection/Subtraction option
Intersect A with B while retaining A Subtract the result (intersection) from A while retaining the tool Connect before meshing

Clean geometry through mesh export/import

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Imprinting in Boolean Operations

Unite cylinder with left cube

Global imprinting

Local imprinting

GEOMETRY.VOLUME.BOOLEAN_METHOD = 0

GEOMETRY.VOLUME.BOOLEAN_METHOD = 1

Default algorithm, more stable Should not require to disconnect geometry before operation Requires subsequent bi-directional split

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Virtual Geometry
Overlay technology
Tool of choice to clean-up and simplify imported geometry Needed when tolerant modeling and healing/smoothing are not sufficient Modifies size and shape of boundary surfaces while being constrained by underlying host geometry definition
Represents same geometry but different topology Can be derived from real, virtual, or faceted geometry

Limited use for Boolean operations Semi-automatic virtual clean-up tool available

Three real faces merged into one virtual face

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Virtual Geometry Operations

Merge: Replaces two connected entities (edge/face/volume) with a single virtual entity
Only volumes can be merged in real

Split: Partitions an individual entity (edge/face/volume) into two or more connected virtual entities Connect: Combines two individual unconnected entities (vertex/edge/face) into a single virtual entity
Connect entities by connecting lower order topology Virtual connect can bridge relatively large gaps in model, larger than ACIS tolerance of 1.0e-6

Collapse: Splits a face and merges the resulting with two neighboring faces Simplify Faces: Removes dangling edges

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Semi-automatic Clean-up Tool

Quickly identify, zoom-in, highlight areas that cause connectivity and mesh quality problems
Graphics color coding set to connectivity Graphics window pivot set to mouse

Suggests appropriate tools (standard virtual tools) to fix problems Easy switch between clan-up tools and regular geometry tools

Nine available clean-up tools

Clean Up Short Edges Clean Up Holes
Option for real face creation in Gambit 2.2 Easy access to additional face creation tools

Clean Up Cracks Clean Up Sharp Angles Clean Up Large Angles Clean Up Small Faces Clean Up Hard Edges Clean Up Fillets Clean Up Duplicate Geometry in Gambit 2.2
Removal of duplicate volumes, faces, edges, and vertices

Select Clean Up Domain

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Semi-automatic Clean-up Tool

Clean Up Duplicate Edges in Gambit 2.2
Includes edges which are coincident in part (T-junction connect)

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Semi-automatic Clean-up Tool

Clean Up Duplicate Faces in Gambit 2.2
Connects or deletes faces Two search options
Topology based
All lower topology has to be identical

Centroid based
Less accurate, but helpful in detecting duplicate faces with different lower topology

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Semi-automatic Clean-up Tool

Clean Up Duplicate Volumes in Gambit 2.2
Connects or deletes duplicate volumes
Duplicate entities due to modeling errors or problematic import

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Semi-automatic Clean-up Tool

Clean Up Short Edges in Gambit 2.2
Edge merge and face merge in addition to vertex connect
Automatic selection of edges and faces in merge list, controlled by defaults
TOOLS.CLEANUP.FACE_MERGE_MIN_ANGLE = 135 TOOLS.CLEANUP.EDGE_MERGE_MIN_ANGLE = 135

Angles sharper than the defaults are cleaned up using vertex connect

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Manual Virtual Clean-up Operations

Eliminate short edges

Edge merge with adjacent edges
Virtual (Tolerance) option allows to automatically merge short edges below a specified edge length Virtual (Tolerance) option with no value specified for Max. Edge Length and Min. Angle will merge all possible edges and automatically eliminate all vertices connected to exactly two edges

Connect vertices (collapsing short edge between)

GEOMETRY.VERTEX.CONNECT_REMOVE_SHORT_EDGE

must be set to 1 in the defaults to connect the vertices defining the shortest edge

Identify short edges using the Highlight shortest edge button in the edge and face connect forms

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Manual Virtual Clean-up Operations

Eliminate sliver faces, small faces, sharp face angles
Merge face with neighbor face
Virtual (Tolerance) option allows to automatically merge faces which form angles larger than Min. Angle Avoid merging faces which form sharp angles ( 90). Sharp angle merge can cause meshing problems
Set GEOMETRY.FACE.SHARP_ANGLE_MERGE in defaults to 1 in order to merge faces which form sharp angles

Use merge edges option in face merge GUI to automatically remove short edges

Connect edges (collapsing sliver face between)

GEOMETRY.EDGE.CONNECT_REMOVE_DEGENERATE_FACE = 1

required to connect the edges defining the sliver face

Eliminate sliver volumes

Connect faces (collapsing sliver volumes between)
GEOMETRY.FACE.CONNECT_REMOVE_DEGENERATE_VOLUME = 1

required to connect the faces defining the sliver volume

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Example: Eliminate Short Edge

Eliminate short edge by

Splitting off small face Merging small face with adjacent face Merging lower topology (merging edges)

Alternative method: Connect vertices using

GEOMETRY.VERTEX.CONNECT_REMOVE_SHORT_EDGE = 1

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Face connect with T-junction splits

New functionality in Gambit 2.2, to ensure connectivity between non-aligned faces

Utilizes projections, splits, and connects For real and virtual geometry, resulting geometry is always virtual Easy connecting of poorly matching faces

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Virtual Geometry Operations

Tolerance used for virtual connect should be smaller than mesh size
If tolerance is larger than intended mesh size, or if mesh size is smaller than merged/collapsed faces, meshing may fail Mesh within the tolerance region gets pushed back to edge
For faces that overlap by a large amount, split each face with the intruding edge and form new face in center

For faces separated by a large gap, create new face to fill the gap

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Connect Preserving Mesh

Preserve higher topology mesh during edge and face connect
Mesh on unconnected entities must be topologically equivalent, but can have different grading Might require mesh smoothing after connect operation

Allows easier meshing of geometry of repeated patterns

Copy geometry using mesh unlinked option before connecting
Preserve first edge shape applies to mesh as well

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Decomposing Virtual Geometry

Face splits by
Face (Virtual)
Set GEOMETRY.FACE.VIRTUAL_FACE_FACE_SPLIT to 1 in defaults Bi-directional option Try exporting surface meshes and splitting imported faceted faces if virtual face split fails

Edges (Virtual)
Endpoints of splitting edge need to be connected to edges of face Tolerance for edge proximity to face

Vertices (Virtual)
Tolerance option for vertex proximity to face Can produce dangling edges Shaped edge option

Locations (Virtual)
Locations snap to edges near boundaries Manually drag and position temporary Locations Shaped edge option

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Decomposing Virtual Geometry

Volume splits by
Faces (Virtual)
All split tool faces must be connected together Must share boundary edges with volume boundary If volume split fails (rarely), make volume invisible (keep lower topology visible) and stitch together desired volumes

Locations (Virtual)
Easy tool to split virtual volumes Manually drag and position temporary Locations Splitting volumes with voids not supported

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Adjusting Virtual Geometry

Adjust virtual geometry using the slide virtual vertex tool

Vertices can be adjusted after meshing (might require subsequent smoothing of mesh)

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Tips for Virtual Geometry

Partially deleting virtual geometry is tricky and not recommended!
Host geometry can become partially visible and make stitching of new geometry tricky Hide virtual geometry instead using the Specify Display Attributes form
Unselect Lower topology toggle to retain visibility of lower topology

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Meshing Tools

Size Functions Boundary Layers Miscellaneous meshing tools Meshing tips

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Size Functions
Control mesh distribution on faces and in volumes
Eliminate the need to premesh edges manually Automatically capture important geometry and flow features Ensure high-quality meshes

Primarily designed for unstructured meshing Speed and robustness improvements in Gambit 2.2
Without Size Function Controlled growth rate with Size Function

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Size Function Types

Fixed
Controls mesh element size in a region as a function of distance from a given location

Curvature
Controls mesh element size as a function of geometric curvature of a face or edge and growth of mesh away from source Good for highly curved surfaces or edges

Proximity
Controls the number of of mesh elements in a gap (edge gaps and face gaps) and growth of mesh away from gap

Meshed
Uses existing mesh as initial size on source entity New Size Function type in Gambit 2.2

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Fixed Size Function

Requires Source specification
Source is origin of Size Function, center of region
Vertices, edges, faces, and volume can be sources for Fixed Size Function Source entity type determines shape of size function
Spherical shape around vertex Cylindrical shape around straight edge

Component sources

Sources can be topologically part of the attachment (component source) or independent of attachment (non-component source) Sources can be internal or external Non-component source

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Fixed Size Function

Requires Attachment specification
Attachment is the mesh to be affected

Attachment face

Fixed Size Function can be attached to edges, faces, and volumes Attachment volume Attachment is ideally the whole model to ensure high quality mesh

Parameter specification
Start size
Mesh element size at source

Growth rate
Geometric stretching of mesh away from source Cannot be less than 1.0

Size limit
Maximum allowable mesh size for attachment No further growth if size limit is reached

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Curvature Size Function

Source specification
Curvature of source entities (edges, faces) used to determine start size
No Size Function

Parameter specification
Angle
Maximum allowable angle between any two adjacent face normals on source 5-30 degrees is reasonable value With Curvature Size Function

Growth rate Size limit

Edges as source entities new in Gambit 2.2

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Proximity Size Function

Source specification
Source entities which contain gap
Gap is volumetric region between specified faces, or area between opposing edges of specified face Gap defined by one source face Parameter specification

Cells/gap
Minimum number of mesh cells in gap

Growth rate Size limit

Gap defined by two source faces

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Meshed Size Function in Gambit 2.2

Ensures that mesh grows controlled away from a premeshed source entities (edges or faces)
Very useful after importing mesh Local start size taken from premeshed source entities

Parameter specification
Only growth rate and size limit are required

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Background Grid
Use of the background grid default parameters is key to obtaining the desired meshes
TOOLS.SFUNCTION.BGRID_MAX_TREE_DEPTH controls

the maximum refinement of the background grid

Increase the default value (16 in Gambit 2.2) until no cells hit the tree depth as reported in the transcript window A value of 1 puts no limits on the background tree depth, but makes Size Functions slow for larger models TOOLS.SFUNCTION.NONLINEAR_ERR_PERCENT

controls the allowable deviation of the local mesh from the prescribed mesh size
Default is 25%, can vary between 3 and 25% Number of cells above the prescribed tolerance are reported in the transcript window TOOLS.SFUNCTION.REPORT_BGRID_INFO = 1 turns

reporting in the transcript window on (on by default)

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Background Grid
Use the Size Function reporting in the Transcript window
If the mesh is noticeably changing as BGRID_MAX_TREE_DEPTH is increased, it is a sign that too many background grid cells are hitting the limit

Background grid level reached maximum value specified Size Function not sufficiently resolved

Ideal background grid

Underresolved BGRID

Resolved BGRID
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Working with Size Functions

Use multiple Size Functions as needed to resolve geometry and flow features
Use Size Functions for surface meshing and combine with Boundary Layers

Fixed Size Function is most robust

Can substitute for Curvature and Proximity Size Function

Size Functions on virtual geometry can yield unexpected results

Host of virtual face is used as source. Causes difficulties when host face extends beyond virtual face
Use vertices or edges as source entities instead of virtual faces to obtain reliable results Restitch source face from edges to have different host geometry (making a copy of the source face is not sufficient)
Real source face.1, attachment face.5 Virtual source v_face.9 and attachment v_face.10 have same host

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Working with Size Function

Size function preview uses simple background grid
Increase TOOLS.SFUNCTION.VISUAL_GRID_MAX_LINE_NUM (default value = 25) if the size limits in the size function preview do not match the specified limits
SF start size = 0.01 Preview start size 0.02222

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Boundary Layers

Produce high quality cells near boundary

Attachment to edges for 2D BL Attachment to faces for 3D BL

Uniform or aspect ratio based BL

Uniform
First row height as parameter Difficulties on highly curved geometry

Aspect ratio based

Aspect ratio of first cell is parameter Does well in concave corners Cannot directly control first cell height

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2D Boundary Layers
Boundary layer shape near vertices depends on vertex type
End (E) type
BL mesh butts up against adjoining edge Overlapped mesh where two BL meet
E E

Side (S) type

Angle at vertex is bisected Continuous BL Internal continuity enforced by manually changing vertex type to S

E E

E S E

Wedge corner shape option for corner (C) and reversal (R) vertices
Wedge corner shape applies to 2D BL only Can be combined with Cooper tool for quasi-3D BL Wedge corner shape off Wedge corner shape on

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3D Boundary Layers

Internal continuity
Allows boundary layers to be formed without crossover region

Imprinting on adjacent face

Default MESH.BLAYER.PROJECT_ADJACENT_ANGLE
removed in Gambit 2.2

Internal continuity on

Single default MESH.VERTEX.MAX_END_ANGLE (=120o

by default) for consistent imprinting of 2D and 3D BL Gambit 2.1 Internal continuity off

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3D Boundary Layers
Different 3D BL settings allowed on adjacent surfaces in Gambit 2.2

Imprinting of 3D BL fails if adjacent volume has already BL attached Modify existing BL instead

Dangling 3D BL are not supported

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Boundary Layer Defaults

Angle smoothing for 3D BL in Gambit 2.2
MESH.BLAYER.ANGLE_SMOOTH_FACTOR (0.0.1.0)

controls amount of smoothing for both 2D and 3D BL

Gambit 2.1
ANGLE_SMOOTH_FACTOR only for 2D BL

Can only grow few layers

Gambit 2.2 Consistent for 2D BL and 3D BL Can grow many layers with good quality

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Boundary Layer Defaults

Height transitioning for 3D BL
MESH.BLAYER.HEIGHT_TRANSIT_RATIO controls how fast the BL height

changes when sides of BL attach to premeshed edges > 1 = number of cells over which height changes from premeshed edge to specified height < 1 = fraction of edge length
Gambit 2.1 Only for 2D BL Gambit 2.2
HEIGHT_TRANSIT_RATIO consistent for

2D and 3D BL

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Boundary Layer Defaults

Use normal and offset smoothing when BL generates skewed elements in concave corners
Normal Smooting Direction of advancing normals is smoothed to avoid collapsing of BL
NORMAL_SMOOTH_ITER (default = 10) NORMAL_SMOOTH_ANGLE (default = 10o) NORMAL_SMOOTH_CONVERGED (default = 0.0o) NORMAL_SMOOTH_LOCALLY (default = 1)

Offset Smoothing Eliminates dips in the advancing layers

OFFSET_SMOOTH_ITER (default = 0) OFFSET_SMOOTH_CONVERGED (default = 0.01)

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Boundary Layer Tips

Use MESH.BLAYER.QUICK_N_DIRTY to control the graphics display during BL creation and attachment
= 0 Project BL using MESH.BLAYER.USE_FACET_EVALS and take attached Size Functions into account 1 Do not project BL, but use Size Functions (default) 2 Do not project, disregard Size Function (fastest)

Deactivate the display of the temporary BL as it is being defined

Arrow of temporary BL points toward the label (ID) of the face/volume into which the BL grows
Can be misleading when attaching BLs

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Meshing of Periodic BC

Hard-link face meshes before meshing

Use periodic option to ensures periodicity of mesh
(ensures periodicity even when one of the edges is split)

Reverse orientation active as default Can hard-link multiple pairs of periodic faces in same volume

Assign PERIODIC boundary type

Multiple hard-linked face pairs can be picked as one periodic zone

Export mesh Fluent 6 correctly recognizes node pairing of periodic boundary conditions
Default periodic type is translational in Fluent 6

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Misc. Map Meshing Tools

Auto-match distribution of premeshed edges on opposite edges
MESH.MAP.MATCH_PREMESHED_EDGE_GRADING = 1

Auto-match doesnt propagate to edges of adjacent faces when map-meshing volumes

Sweep and revolve of faces generates 3D meshes from 2D meshes

Use With mesh option in sweep and revolve GUI Uses grading and spacing of premeshed sweep path Same option when sweeping or revolving edges into faces

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Meshing Tips
Surface meshing done on faceted face representation by default
MESH.FACE.EXACT_MESH_EVALS = 0

Final exact projection from facets to surface by default

MESH.FACE.PROJECT_TO_SURFACE = 1

Turn final projection off and leave mesh on facets if projection generates skewed or degenerated mesh on bad/corrupt surfaces
PROJECT_TO_SURFACE = 1 PROJECT_TO_SURFACE = 0

Poor mesh by mapper on highly curved surfaces

Projection to the surface distorts the mesh Smooth the face mesh using Winslow scheme (only available for quad elements)
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Meshing Tips
If Tet/TGrid fails to initialize the volume mesh
Inspect quality of surface mesh Turn on verbosity in defaults MESH.TETMESH.VERBOSITY = 1
Reports number of uninitialized nodes Likely fixable if only few nodes fail to initialize TGrid allows to visualize uninitialized nodes

Export surface mesh and try meshing volume in TGrid

Example 1: Nose cone of missile

Initialization fails due to collapsed surface elements Fix: Split nose cone and create separate face for first element

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Meshing Tips
Example 2: Self-intersecting volume
Tet/TGrid initialization fails due to self-intersecting volume Difficult to diagnose for complex geometries Fix: Split volume

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Meshing Tips

Default limit for tri elements on single face is 100000

Increase limit in defaults MESH.TRIMESH.MAX_FACES or use a value of 1 for no restriction

Mesh size limits

Memory estimate for single volume with 1 million cells
Hex mesh: 190MB Tet mesh: 340MB (about 6 million tet cells max. on 2GB machine)

Access additional swap space on UNIX/Linux platforms (requires 3GB of swap space on disk)
setenv FLUENT_MMAP_PATH /tmp/filename setenv FLUENT_USE_MMAP 1 Gives access to more memory and allows larger models

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Meshing Tips

Mesh delete
Delete volume or face mesh using Remove unused lower mesh removes edge mesh, but does not reset assigned edge grading and spacing Delete edge mesh without using Reset to default values deletes the edge mesh, but retain the assigned grading and spacing
Reset to default values restores the default spacing specified in
MESH.INTERVAL.COUNT MESH.INTERVAL.SIZE

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Mesh Export
Native Fluent 6 export
Exports mixed (volume + surface) mesh Exports surface mesh without specifying the boundary conditions
Unspecified boundaries will be wall

Export 2d Mesh option

Ensures proper 2D mesh format for Fluent 6 Default FILE_IO.MESH.EXPORT_2D_TOLERANCE = 0.0001 is used to determine whether mesh is in xy-plane

Utility export option available through defaults

FILE_IO.FLUENT5.EXPORT_USING_UTILITY = 1

For rare cases where direct Fluent 6 exports fails Exports only volume mesh Exports surface mesh only for surfaces with specified boundary conditions if FILE_IO.FLUENT5.EXPORT_SURFACE_MESH_ONLY = 1

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Miscellaneous Tips and Tricks

Geometry display and faceting Boundary zone coloring Picking entities Journal files

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Geometry Display and Faceting

Geometry display and meshing use faceted representation for increased speed
Use
GEOMETRY.EDGE.MAX_NUM_FACETS (default = 100) GEOMETRY.TOLERANCE.EDGE_FACET (default = 0.01)

before the geometry creation to control the edge facets For existing geometry, change the defaults, save and restore database

GEOMETRY.EDGE.MAX_NUM_FACETS = 500 GEOMETRY.TOLERANCE.EDGE_FACET = 0.000001

If view manipulation is too slow

Turn visibility of silhouettes off using the display attribute form Turn the silhouette generation for new faces automatically off using
GRAPHICS.GENERAL.ADD_SILHOUETTES_AT_FACE_CONSTRUCTION = 0

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Color by Zone Type/ID

Option to color zones by zone type or by zone ID
Similar to Fluent and TGrid
GRAPHICS.GENERAL.ZONECOLOR_TYPE = [0, 1] 0 color by ID 1 color by type

Change the default black background color

GRAPHICS.GENERAL.WINDOWS_BACKGROUND_COLOR

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Picking Entities
Picking by dragging a box over entities
Picking partially included entities when dragging box diagonally down Picking completely included entities when dragging box diagonally up

Using mouse and cursor: Shift +

Left mouse: initial pick, additional picks Middle mouse: modify pick Right mouse: Apply or next list box

Using picking filter

Picking based on real/virtual meshed/unmeshed entities
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Journal Files
Extracting lost journal file from existing database file
gambit res(torejournal) journalfile id database

Tips to minimize impact when running old journal files

Use default GUI.GENERAL.JOURNAL_ENTITY = 1 or 2 to generate ID independent labels, if possible
0 journal original labels (default) 1 journal lastid, i.e. creation order 2 journal entity location

Set GEOMETRY.VOLUME.BOOLEAN_METHOD = 0 to use old Boolean/imprinting method Set GEOMETRY.GENERAL.REAL_LABEL_CHANGE_MINIMIZATION = 0 when running Gambit 2.0 journal files Set GEOMETRY.FACE.VIRTUAL_FACE_SPLIT_METHOD = 0 to get old behavior

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Miscellaneous Tips and Tricks

Use Edit Defaults to customize default settings

For example, set GLOBAL.GENERAL.SOLVER = 64 for Fluent 6 use Save defaults in ~/Gambit.ini file More information on the defaults is in the Gambit Defaults Guide at www.fluentusers.com

Most Gambit documentation is in the Modeling Guide!

Use Quick Help to directly access the complete documentation

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Summary
GAMBIT continues to improve pre-processing efficiency Improved robustness and speed Improved real geometry tools Extended automatic clean-up Improved meshing tools Go try this at home.
Create real non-planar faces Stitch volumes with voids Quickly find duplicate entities Connect faces with T-junctions Split entities with Locations Mesh with fast Size Functions

Thank You!
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