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.

There are two main reasons for wanting to replace a surface mesh:

  1. The new surface contains fixes performed by some other third-party pre-processing software; and
  2. The new surface contains a geometrical design change from the original

Replacing a surface does not disrupt the meshing pipeline and is a convenient method for performing multiple mesh runs on different surfaces since all parameter settings and values are preserved.

The currently allowable surface mesh replacement formats are:

  • .dbs - pro-STAR surface database mesh file
  • .inp - pro-STAR cell/vertex input file
  • .nas - NASTRAN shell file
  • .pat - PATRAN shell file
  • .fro - FELISA front surface file
To replace a surface, right-click on the surface mesh name and select Replace Surface... from the pop-up menu. An example for the Remeshed Surface node is shown below:

The Open dialog appears.

Select the surface file that you want to import and click Open to import the surface. You are then prompted for the units for the new surface file before it is imported. If the underlying patch definitions for the original and replacement surface are the same, then the current boundary list is maintained. If extra patches exist in the new surface, then new boundaries are created to represent them. In instances where patches are missing from the new surface, deselect existing boundaries that become empty.

When using the .dbs or .inp formats for replacing a mesh, an option to Match Boundaries by Name is provided in the interim dialog. This option is turned off by default, meaning that no attempt is made to match old and new boundaries based on their names but instead their cell types are used. Turning on this option matches patches to boundaries based on their names instead of cell types. The process of matching boundaries by name is case-sensitive.

If you are replacing a surface mesh with a surface of .inp format that was exported from an existing Simcenter STAR-CCM+ simulation, underscores replace any spaces in boundary names in the .inp file. As a result, Simcenter STAR-CCM+ may be unable to match boundaries by name when the surface mesh is replaced. Under these circumstances, it is recommended that you export the surface mesh to the .dbs format instead.

To replace the volume mesh, use the import option in the File menu to reimport a whole new mesh or alternatively you can replace a single mesh region.