Meshing User's Guide

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Sweep Method Control

If you select the Sweep method, a swept mesh is forced on sweepable bodies
(including axis-sweepable bodies, which are not displayed when you use the
Show Sweepable Bodies feature). The mesher will fail if a swept mesh cannot
be generated on a body with a Sweep Method control.
Use the Sweep option for any of the following situations:
A swept mesh is required.
You want a swept mesh on a model that revolves around an axis where
the source and target faces share topology.
When you choose the Sweep option, the Details View expands to include
additional settings, many of which are unique to this option. For basic usage that
involves obtaining a swept mesh, the procedure is to apply a Method Control
to one or more bodies, set Method to Sweep, and accept the default values of
the various settings.
For advanced or specialized usage such as meshing thin models or axis sweeping,
adjust the settings as needed. The following is a description of each of these
settings.
Element Midside Nodes - Refer to Method Controls and Element
Midside Nodes Settings.
Src/Trg Selection - Defines the source and target selection type
according to the following choices:
Automatic - The program determines the best source and target for
the body.
Manual Source - You select the source and the program determines
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the target. This choice is useful when there are multiple source target
pairs and you want to specify the source in order to get the correct
bias through the sweep direction. Another application is when your
cross section is changing and the mesh quality would be better when
sweeping from one side vs. another.
Manual Source and Target - The sweeper will revolve the mesh
around common edges/vertices. This choice is useful when you want
to sweep a body where the source and target faces share vertices
and/or edges.
Automatic Thin - This choice is for thin models and thin sheet metal
parts, or any application where you want one hex or wedge through
the thickness, in preparation for using the Mechanical APDL
application's SOLSH190 element. (See the description for this element
in the Element Reference within the Mechanical APDL help.) For this
choice, the face with the largest face area is selected as the master
source and the algorithm determines the rest of the source faces. For
multibody parts, only one division through the thickness is possible.
For single body parts, you can define multiple elements through the
thickness using the Sweep Num Divs control. Biasing is not
available. An Element Option setting is included that instructs the
solver to use the Solid Shell element where possible, or to always
use a Solid element.
Manual Thin - The same restrictions apply as described above for
Automatic Thin. However, with this choice, you can do any of the
following:
Pick one source face and allow the program to determine the
rest.
Pick all of the source faces and allow the program to do nothing
but mesh the source faces and sweep them to the target.
Pick multiple source faces and mesh one target face.
Note:

The Sweep mesh method does not support

the Manual Source, Manual Source and

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Target, or Manual Thin settings for

Src/Trg Selection if Sweep is applied to
more than one part, even if you suppress all
of the other parts.
In some cases, the thin model sweeper may
want to swap source and target faces based
on meshing conditions in neighboring
bodies. In such cases, a warning message will
be issued to alert you.
For example, if you are mixing a patch
independent mesh method (i.e., Patch
Independent tetra or MultiZone) with the
thin model sweeper to mesh bodies in a
multibody part, the thin model sweeper may
need to swap the source and target faces in
order to respect protected topology in the
neighboring bodies. If there is protected
topology on both sides of the body that is
scoped for thin sweep, the side with the
largest number of faces is selected as the
source face.
To make source/target face selection easier,
select View > Annotations from the Main
Menu to toggle the visibility of annotations
in the Geometry window. For example,
after scoping Sweep to a body, the body
will be displayed using a blue solid
annotation. Select View > Annotations to
turn off the annotations; then select the
source/target faces. For picking internal
faces, the Hide Faces right mouse button
option may help you to see inside a body.
For example, you can select external faces in
the Geometry window and then use the
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Hide Faces option to hide the selected faces

(making it easier to select the internal faces).
Refer to Considerations for Selecting Source Faces for the Thin Model
Sweeper for details.
Free Face Mesh Type - Determines the shape of the elements used to
fill the swept body (pure hex, pure wedge, or a combination of
hex/wedge). Allows you to choose All Tri, Quad/Tri, or All Quad
meshing when Src/Trg Selection is Automatic, Manual Source, or
Manual Source and Target. Allows you to choose Quad/Tri or All
Quad meshing when Src/Trg Selection is Automatic Thin or Manual
Thin. The default in all cases is Quad/Tri.
Note:

If the source face is also a side face of another

body, the face will always be quad mapped.
When Free Face Mesh Type is set to either
Quad/Tri or All Quad and the source face can
be mapped meshed, the face will sometimes be
mapped meshed even if it means applied sizing
controls (such as Contact Sizing, Sphere of
Influence, etc.) will be ignored.
In some cases when Src/Trg Selection is set
to Automatic, the source face that is selected by
the software must be quad mapped in order for
the sweep method to be successful. In these
cases, the value that is specified for Free Face
Mesh Type may be ignored.

Type - Allows you to specify a Number of Divisions or Element Size

through the sweep direction. When sweeping generalized bodies that
share faces, the Element Size is a soft constraint on interval assignment
and the Number of Divisions is a hard constraint. If you have
conflicting Number of Divisions constraints, the sweeper will fail and
yield a message. To obtain a regular mesh in the sweep direction, the
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guiding edges must have consistent lengths. You can define virtual split
edges to achieve consistent lengths for these edges (see Creating and
Managing Virtual Split Edges). Also see Sizing Control for more
information.
Sweep Bias Type - Specify bias in the same manner as edge biasing for
the Bias Type setting in a Sizing mesh control. There is no graphical
feedback for biasing on a Method control. Biasing direction is based from
the source to the target.
The Constrain Boundary setting is available for multibody parts only
(both for general sweeping and thin sweeping). Specify whether you want
to allow the mesher to split the elements at the boundary of a swept
mesh region to aid in meshing. You can choose Yes (constrain boundary;
no splitting is allowed) or No (do not constrain boundary; splitting is
allowed). Choosing Yes prevents tets from entering the swept body. The
default is No.
Note:

For gasket simulations, set the Stiffness Behavior

of the body to Gasket and proceed with adjusting
mesh settings as described in the Gasket Mesh
Control section located under Using Gaskets in the
Mechanical Application help.
In models with swept regions, the Advanced Size
Function will affect the mesh gradation in the swept
region. You can override this effect by specifying any
Sweep Bias value (including a value of 1), Sweep
Element Size value, or Sweep Num Divs value in
the Details View when defining the sweep method.
There is a system limitation when using the sweep
method with the Advanced Size Function. The
Advanced Size Function may have nodes slightly off
because the spacing is queried. The sweeper then
tries to match that spacing, which may lead to
unexpected mesh results.
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If you apply a local Sizing control to a solid body

with a Method control set to Hex Dominant or
Sweep, or to a sheet body with a Method control
set to Quadrilateral Dominant, a near uniform
quadrilateral mesh will result on all affected faces on a
body meshed with Hex Dominant, on the source
face meshed with Sweep, and on all affected faces
meshed with Quadrilateral Dominant. To obtain
even more of a uniform quadrilateral mesh, set the
Behavior of the Sizing control to Hard.

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Contains proprietary and confidential information of ANSYS, Inc.

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