TYPE
TOOL
APPLICATION
MAIN ADVANTAGE
DESCRIPTION
Structured
Command line primitives and FISH
- Available from the command line
- Any type of problem
- Better suited for simple geometries
- Very time consuming for complex geometries
- Quality
- Includes pre-meshed primitive shapes (hex, cylinder, tunnel intersections, ...), and topography conforming functionality (for v. 5.0 and up)
- FISH language can be used to deform the grid to better fit the geometry to be modeled
- ZONE SPLIT split command allows automatically dividing all tetrahedral and wedge shaped zones into hexahedrons (v 5.0 and up)
- Basic unstructured tetrahedral mesh generation on closed volumes (new in v 6.0)
Structured
Primitives Commands & FISH – Octree mesh
- Available from the command line
- Any type of numerical problem
- Better suited for complex geometries
- Efficiency
- In addition to primitives, topography (v 5.0 and up) and geometric data (v 5.0 and up) commands, the DENSIFY command automatically builds octree meshes from surfaces and volumes
- FISH language can also be used to deform the grid to better fit the geometry to be modeled
Structured
Interactive 2D extrusion (v 5.0 and up required)
- Available from the FLAC3D interface
- For extruded geometries only
- Efficiency
- Quality
- Allows interactive definition of a 2D section and then extrusion to create zones
- DXF or bitmap can be imported and used as a background, with snapping available
Structured
Interactive Building Block (NEW in v 6.0)
- Available from theFLAC3Dinterface
- Any type of problem
- Better suited for simple to moderately complex geometries
- Quality
- Structured meshing capabilities
- Option to automatically block geometries for subsequent editing
- DRAPE command automatically conforms the surface of the model to a supplied topography
Structured
InteractiveBlockRanger
- Available from the Rhino interface
- Any type of problem
- Better suited for simple to moderately complex geometries
- Quality
- Complete CAD system environment
- Itasca interactive mapped mesher
- Generates all-hex meshes
Unstructured
Interactive Griddle (NEW)
- Available from the Rhino interface
- Any type of problem
- Better suited for complex geometries
- Efficiency
- Complete CAD system environment
- NEW Itasca interactive automesher
- Generates tetrahedral and hex-dominant meshes