Splitting bodies

Video: Sweep a mesh through a body with hexahedral elements

Use Split Body to divide the target geometry into one or more bodies. You can use Split Body to divide either sheet or solid bodies. Split Body produces an associative feature that appears in the model's history that you can update, edit, or delete as necessary.

With Split Body, you use a “tool” body or geometry to divide the target geometry in the locations you specify. With Split Body, that tool geometry can be:

• An existing face or datum plane.

• A new datum plane.

• A revolved or extruded body that you can create directly from the Split Body dialog box.

Note:

You must first promote or WAVE-link the bodies you want to split before you use the Split Body command. To promote a body in Pre/Post, highlight the idealized part in the Simulation Navigator and select Promote from the right-click menu.

Use Split Body to help prepare complex geometry for meshing. For example, you can use Split Body to subdivide a larger model into smaller, sweepable regions to facilitate hexahedral meshing. See Multi Body-Infer Target and Until Target meshes for more information.

Using color coding to indicate sweepable bodies

You can use the Check for Sweepable Body option in the Simulation Settings group to have the software temporarily change the color of selected solid bodies to indicate whether they are likely sweepable with the Multi Body-Infer Target method in the 3D Swept Mesh dialog box.

• Red indicates that you cannot currently generate a swept mesh on the body with the Multi Body-Infer Target option. You must divide the body further before you can generate a swept mesh with the Multi Body-Infer Target option.Note: The software also colors a body red if it contains more than 100 faces.

• Yellow indicates that you may be able to generate a swept mesh on the body but that the software has identified ambiguous target faces. Depending on how you define the source and target faces when you define the swept mesh, you may be able to generate a hexahedral mesh without further splitting the body. For example, you may be able to use the Until Target option to sweep a mesh from a source face to a target face that you explicitly define. However, you may still need to divide the body before you can successfully generate a swept mesh.

• Green indicates that you should be able to generate a swept mesh on the body without further splitting the body.

Note:

You can use the Sweepable Body customer defaults to customize the colors that the software uses to indicate whether a body may be sweepable. In the Customer Defaults dialog box, select Modeling→General→Simulation tab.

The graphic below shows an example of the Check for Sweepable Body option. (A) shows the part with its original colors. (B) shows the part with the Check for Sweepable Body box selected.

To retain the colors after you exit the Split Body dialog box, select the Set Body Color check box. The software applies the colors to the associated polygon bodies in the FEM file.

Note:

The Check for Sweepable Body option does not evaluate whether the selected solid bodies are sweepable with the Until Target method in the 3D Swept Mesh dialog box.

For more information, see Understanding the Sweepable Body check.

Mesh mating conditions can be created automatically

You can use the Auto Create Mesh Mating Conditions option in the Split Body dialog box to control whether the software automatically creates mesh mating conditions between the resulting bodies. If you select this option, when you switch from the idealized part to the FEM file, the software automatically creates a glue coincident mesh mating condition between the bodies. The mesh mating condition ensures that any meshes are continuous from one body to the other. See Mesh mating conditions for more information.

Activating Simulation-specific options for Split Body in the Modeling application

The Split Body command is available in both the Pre/Post and Modeling applications. By default, Simulation-specific options, such as Check for Sweepable Body, do not display in the Split Body dialog box in the Modeling application. To view these options in the Modeling application, select the Show Simulation-Specific Dialog Items in Modeling option in the Modeling Preferences dialog box.

Where do I find it?

Application	Pre/Post
Prerequisite	A part or an idealized part file as the displayed part and work part
Command Finder	Split Body

Learn more

Understanding the Sweepable Body check

Quick links

Command reference

Pre/Post video examples

Bulk Entry Descriptions

Simcenter 3D tutorials

Browse Simcenter 3D help by product area

Splitting bodies, Simcenter 3D 2021.1 Series

© 2020 Siemens

window.mainLanguage="en_US"

window.delivId=""

window.projectId=""

MathJax.Hub.Config({ TeX: { extensions: ["autoload-all.js"] }, tex2jax: { displayMath: [ ] }, "SVG": { scale: 125 } });