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Pre-Processing
Simcenter STAR-CCM+ solves physics problems on a computational mesh. To provide this mesh, you first define geometry using internal or external tools, and then create a mesh pipeline whose operations generate the mesh in repeatable steps.
Meshing
A mesh is a discretized representation of a geometric domain. This domain can include real-world geometry, its content, and its surrounding environment.
Working With Representations
This section provides information on representations as a useful part of the meshing process.
Using Cell Sets
The purpose of a cell set is to allow you to identify collections of cells that are useful for visualizing the model, such as during post processing or mesh checking.
Creating a New Cell Set
Generate a new cell set before any further manipulation can be done on the set or the set contents displayed.

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Pre-Processing
Simcenter STAR-CCM+ solves physics problems on a computational mesh. To provide this mesh, you first define geometry using internal or external tools, and then create a mesh pipeline whose operations generate the mesh in repeatable steps.
- 3D-CAD
  3D-CAD is a feature-based parametric modeler within Simcenter STAR-CCM+ that allows you to build geometries from scratch. The geometries that you create with 3D-CAD are stored as 3D-CAD models, which you can then convert to geometry parts for integration with the meshing and simulation process.
- Modeling Geometry
  This part of the User Guide describes how to use 3D-CAD, the parametric solid modeler available within Simcenter STAR-CCM+. It also describes the features and tools available for further preparation of the geometry model and its surfaces.
- The Surface Repair Tool
  The Surface Repair tool diagnoses errors in, and provides repair tools for, tessellated surfaces and part curves. The same tool allows you to reorganize discretized geometry by searching for face-based features and attributes then assigning the results to new or existing part surfaces or curves.
- Defining the Regions Layout
  An essential part of the process in setting up your simulation is to define the relationship between geometry parts and regions, boundaries, and interfaces.
- Meshing
  A mesh is a discretized representation of a geometric domain. This domain can include real-world geometry, its content, and its surrounding environment.
  - Mesh Construction
    Within a bounding volume defined by geometrical surfaces, Simcenter STAR-CCM+ can construct meshes for finite volume and finite element solvers.
  - Meshers in Simcenter STAR-CCM+
    The meshers in Simcenter STAR-CCM+ generate surface and volume meshes for geometry parts that are assigned to regions and make them ready for analysis.
  - Parts-Based Meshing
    Parts-based meshing (PBM) is a meshing strategy in which you create one or more mesh operations that define workflows for preparing, fixing, and processing geometry. A major benefit of PBM is that every mesh operation you create forms part of a linear and repeatable process.
  - The Meshing Workflow
    This section contains the recommended workflow for setting up and generating the volume mesh at the parts level.
  - Mesh Operations
    Mesh operations perform actions on geometry parts that you can easily repeat whenever their input parts or properties are changed.
  - Mesh Descriptions
    A mesh description is a version of a surface or volume mesh belonging to a geometry part. Geometry parts can have more than one surface mesh description associated with them. You create and change descriptions by importing surfaces or executing operations.
  - Custom Mesh Controls
    Custom controls override any default controls for the surface and volume meshers. This facility allows you to refine or coarsen the mesh for part curves, part surfaces, geometry parts, and specified volumes.
  - Surface Meshers
    Simcenter STAR-CCM+ contains meshing tools which can be used to help prepare a high-quality surface mesh before a volume mesh can be generated.
  - Volume Meshers
    Simcenter STAR-CCM+ contains different types of meshers that can be used to generate a volume mesh starting from a suitably prepared surface mesh.
  - Mesh Refinement
    Simcenter STAR-CCM+ can refine the mesh by approximating the wake region or using solution-based approach. These features allow you to achieve efficient refinement by reducing the cell size in areas of interest.
  - Directed Meshing
    Directed meshing is a method for generating high quality swept meshes on geometries in Simcenter STAR-CCM+. The method operates by sweeping a mesh from the surfaces of a geometry through its volume onto a facing target surface.
  - Two Dimensional and Axisymmetric Meshes
    The use of a one-cell-thick three-dimensional mesh is much less efficient than using a real two-dimensional mesh for two-dimensional and axisymmetric simulations. When circumstances allow, use real two-dimensional meshes.
  - Turbomachinery Mesh
    Turbomachinery applications with axial blades typically require a flow-aligned, structured mesh. This type of mesh has implicit connectivity and a fixed number of vertex or face neighbors, leading to a more accurate solution.
  - Mesh Visualization
    You can visualize any mesh representation in Simcenter STAR-CCM+. After you have imported or generated a mesh, you visualize it to check the cell quality and mesh validity.
  - Checking the Surface Mesh
    The volume mesh quality is directly dependent on the surface mesh quality. Therefore, it is crucial to make sure that all surface meshes are of good quality.
  - Checking the Volume Mesh
    This section describes the tools available for checking the validity and quality of the volume mesh, and for diagnosing problem areas. Such problems can then be fixed, either inside Simcenter STAR-CCM+ or in the originating mesh generator.
  - Meshing Field Functions Reference
    This section contains a list of field functions that are related to meshing.
  - Working With Representations
    This section provides information on representations as a useful part of the meshing process.
    - What Are Representations?
      Representations help you keep track of the surface and volume meshes that Simcenter STAR-CCM+ uses as part of the meshing and simulation setup process. Several different representations are available.
    - Displaying Representations
      The new surface or volume mesh representations that are generated using the meshing tools are not automatically displayed in the plot window once the meshing process is complete.
    - Using Proxy Representations
      A proxy representation acts as a placeholder and allows you to control the representation of multiple objects (scenes, reports, and plots) from a single location.
    - Replacing a Surface Mesh
      Any of the five types of surface mesh representations, namely import and remeshed surface, can be replaced at any given time by a new surface read in from an external file.
    - Preparing a Surface Mesh
    - Exporting a Surface Mesh
      Any of the five types of surface mesh representations, namely import and extracted surface can be exported from Simcenter STAR-CCM+ for further manipulation.
    - Extracting a Surface Mesh
      This facility extracts a surface mesh from a volume mesh representation so that you can generate a new volume mesh using the Simcenter STAR-CCM+ meshing tools.
    - Using Cell Sets
      The purpose of a cell set is to allow you to identify collections of cells that are useful for visualizing the model, such as during post processing or mesh checking.
      - Creating a New Cell Set
        Generate a new cell set before any further manipulation can be done on the set or the set contents displayed.
        Creating a New Cell Set Using a Cell List
        The cell list option for creating a cell set allows individual cell ID’s or offsets to be used to identify cells. In general, these options are included for developers to debug problems as the ID’s and offsets are not generally available or known to the average user.
        Creating a New Cell Set Using a Threshold
        The threshold option allows cell sets to be created based on any of the normally available scalars such as centroid geometric range, face area magnitudes and volumes, as well as post processing items such as pressure, temperature and velocity etc, should they be available.
        Creating a New Cell Set Using a Zone
        The zone option allows cell sets to be created based on cells that are contained fully within an arbitrary closed loop polygon. As such, it is a very flexible and quick method of isolating cells with just a few mouse clicks.
        Creating a New Cell Set Using a Geometric Range
        The geometric range option allows cell sets to be created based on cells that are contained fully within a Cartesian based block, extending in the x, y and z directions.
        Creating a New Empty Cell Set
        The advantage of using an empty cell set is that you are initially not presented with any options for how the set is created or displayed as part of the scene. You can then modify the cell set using the range of global and Boolean tools available.
        Example: Creating a Cell Set to View the Outer Layer of Cells on a Mesh
        This example describes how to create and modify a cell set using some of the cell set tools that are available.
      - Modifying an Existing Cell Set
        Once a cell set has been created, it can be easily modified using a range of global and/or Boolean operations in order to manipulate the cell collection further.
      - Copying and Pasting Cell Sets
        Boolean operations between two cell sets can be performed by copying and pasting from one cell set to another.
  - Scaling the Entire Mesh
    Scaling the mesh is important as the units of the model must be in meters before running an analysis.
  - Working with Baffles
  - Exporting Mesh and Solution Data
    This section outlines the steps for exporting Simcenter STAR-CCM+ mesh and solution data to formats that can be used in other CAE packages.
  - Multi-Region Meshing
    This section outlines the surface requirements for performing multi-region meshing, as well as step-by-step instructions when starting from surface imports that result in single region and multiple regions definitions. Additionally, guidelines are provided on what the best approaches are for exporting surface data from CAD packages when multiple regions are required.

Creating a New Cell Set

Generate a new cell set before any further manipulation can be done on the set or the set contents displayed.

By default a 3D volume mesh representation has no cell sets defined for it. If you have a 2D volume mesh, then a cell set cannot be displayed for it.

Four methods are available for creating a cell set:

Using a cell list;
Using a scalar threshold;
Using a zone; and
Using a geometry range

Each new cell set created is based on all the cells in the model, regardless of any previously generated sets. For the cell list and threshold options, a dialog window appears with the appropriate options to allow you to create the cell set, while the zone and geometric range options allow you to select the zone or block of cells of interest manually. In all four instances however, you are prompted as how to add the new cell set part to the current scene in order for it to be displayed.

To view the GUI options available for creating a cell set, right-click on the Volume Mesh > Cell Sets node and select the New option:

The Empty cell set option allows you to create an empty cell set node, which can be modified afterwards to include cells using any combination of the tools provided.

Once a cell set has been created, a new sequentially numbered node, starting from Cell Set 1, is created under the Cell Sets node. Clicking the node provides a summary of the number of cells that are contained in the set:

A field function is also created for each cell set by default, which appears under the Automation > Field Functions manager node. The field function has the same name as the cell set by default.

This cell set field function can be useful is situations such as when a region needs to be split based on an existing collection of cells. Once the original cell set is deleted, the associated field function is also deleted.

The new cell set creation tools only allow a single action to create the original cell set. If you want to apply additional criteria to manipulate the set further, then modify the cell set using the range of global and Boolean tools available.

Cell set nodes can be renamed and deleted in the same way as other nodes. They can also be copied and pasted to perform Boolean operations between two different sets.