#Gmsh windows tutorial how to

To generate the volumetric 3D mesh clic on “Modules/Mesh/3D”. To generate your surfacic 2D mesh simply clic on “Modules/Mesh/2D”. You can change the size of the elements (Element size factor) to get fine or coarse meshes. We recommend to use the “MeshAdapt” algorithm for the 2D generation. Several options are available to optimize your mesh. To generate a 2D mesh and a 3D mesh adapted to simulation, we propose to use GMSH. Deformations are only possible on the nodes of the mesh, a triangle can not bend. There is often not enough points to allow deformations (see the result in the following images). Becareful if you want to use this mesh for simulation, either for the visualisation or the collision model, because the mesh may not be suited. Using FreeCAD you can directly export your mesh using the “.stl” or “.obj” format (sufficient for 3D printing). We mainly remove the sharp angles to ease the 3D print of the mold, and the casting stage of the silicone. Here we will add what we call a “fillet” ( ). Now we can both the surface and the inner cavity. You can change the view of the object (right clic on the model, appearance…).

Select both objects and combine them into a single object using the “fusion” tool ( ).

and the second one generated by the “mirror” tool.

the first one generated by the “revolve” tool.

Now we use the “mirror” tool ( ) to get our final shape. The next step is to use the “revolve” tool ( ) to create the solid. When working with cavity, you can either include the cavity in your sketching or create the cavity later and use the boolean operation tool (difference) to remove the matter. See for exemple this video for a detail tuto. Here are the tools to draw your sketch ( ) and to set constraints ( ). When sketching, keep in mind that there are tools to automatically generate symetries. Here we choosed the “complete” workshop, which displays a sample of all the workshops. In FreeCAD you have several workbench (Part, Sketcher…) showing the different corresponding tools. The first step is to sketch your structure.

#Gmsh windows tutorial how to

In this section we will give a quick overview of how to design a soft pneumatic actuator using FreeCAD, together with links to more detailed explanations. In the following, we will show an example using FreeCAD for the design and GMSH for the mesh generation. For CGAL, a dedicated plugin is available within the SOFA framework (see a documentation here).

Several tools also exist for volume meshing such as GID ( ), CGAL ( ), or Gmsh ( ). Several tools exist for 3D modelisation such as OpenSCAD ( ), FreeCAD ( ), or Blender ( ).

The aim of this tutorial is to explain how to design a closed surface description made of triangles, and create a volumetric mesh from it. This volume, referred as volumetric mesh will serve as a domain for FEM computation. In order to simulate a mechanical object using Finite Element Modeling (FEM), a discrete version of its volume is required.