Draft Quality & High Quality Mesh SOLIDWORKS 2020 – New!

Article by Enrique Garcia on Oct 18, 2019

New in SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2020 it is possible to define Draft Quality mesh elements or High Quality mesh elements for each individual solid body in the simulation study creating a hybrid mesh.  This new capability will be helpful in saving your meshing resources.  It gives you more control on which solid body you can apply either a Draft or High Quality element type too.

To apply a Draft Quality or High Quality mesh locate the solid body from your Simulation Design Tree and right-click on the body.  You will have the option “Apply Draft Quality Mesh” or “Apply High Quality Mesh” depending on what setting you have chosen in your general mesh settings.

draft quality & high quality mesh settings

Upon creating the mesh, you will get the below popup message.  Selecting “No” will allow you to mix element quality types creating a hybrid mesh.  Notice the assigned Draft Quality solid body mesh is characterized by a different color.

high quality mesh pop up message

Hybrid Mesh and Linear Static Studies

As of SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2020, hybrid mesh is only supported for linear static studies with solid bodies only.  If your study has shell or beam elements, the option will not appear in the right-click menu.  Excluding the bodies for these element types from the analysis will enable the feature.  If you include an excluded shell or beam element solid body you will be given a popup notification of resetting the hybrid mesh to whatever the global setting is set to.

Using hybrid mesh results from a linear static study is supported as inputs for dependent study types such as:

  • Submodeling
  • Pressure Vessel
  • Design Studies
  • Fatigue Simulation studies.

Interested in learning more about what’s new in SOLIDWORKS 2020, check out our collection of videos here.

 

About Enrique Garcia

Enrique has been involved in technical training since 2007 with SOLIDWORKS and Simulation tools and currently specializes in Simulation Products. He is a CSWE and was given Elite Application Engineer status at SOLIDWORKS world in 2018. Enrique holds a Bachelor's Degree in Biomedical Engineering from Arizona State University. He has worked alongside and learned from companies in the medical device industry developing orthodontic devices that specializes in the rehabilitation needs of many types of patients.

View all posts by Enrique Garcia