FE / CAE options
The Finite Element (FE) or Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) tools are similar in their intent as those available for the CAD formats. The tools are aimed at providing basic capabilities for working directly with the FE formats and for converting FE formats into CAD formats.
Surface Extraction.
For solid FE models, the only surfaces that are of interest for use in a CAD environment are the surfaces that are on the exterior. This function will find all exterior surfaces and extract them for use in a CAD model. This feature is inteded to be used where FE models are to be re-introduced into CAD for verification..
Shell Generation
This tool can be considered the opposite to the Surface Extraction tool. Its purpose is to conver a CAD geometry to a surface/shell mesh suitable for use in a FE work flow. Though the mesh depends on the quality of the input, it is often easier to work with surface CAD data than FE shells directly..
Statistics
Often the type and quantity of FE meshes isn't clear from the import function. This tool provides additional information about the quantity and types of elements present..
Surface Mesh Addition
In some cases the exported or translated data consist only of a solid mesh and the output needs to also contain a surface mesh. This tool adds a surface mesh to the existing volume/solid mesh.
Offsetting
A tool used for cases where a surface mesh needs to be shifted along the local mesh normal.
Vertex Deletion
In some cases a specific Vertex and associated elements are to be deleted. This tool allows a coordinate to be entered and whatever vertex is closest to this location delted together with any elements that use this vertex (thus effectively generating a void in a model)
Reordering
Allows the data to be re-ordered for cases where the import contained ID data that was offset or for cases where unsupported elements were included..
Prismatic Generation
In some special cases, a thin mesh is required that can be 'grown' from a shell mesh. This tool allows inflation of a shell into a solid mesh along the normals with prescribed thickness and number of elements.
Entity Deletion
Some file formats contain both solid and shell elements and the target output only needs one or the other. This tool allows either Shell elements, Volume elements or unused vertices to be deleted from the data.
Transforms
Similar to CAD data, the mesh data can be shifted, rotated or scaled to meet specific requirements.