- [Instructor] A mesh is a series of triangles
that is solved by the FEA solver
to figure out the stresses in your part
and the easier you can make it for the computer
the better results you're going to be getting.
So in this case here I've got a couple things
I've added to this model that are going to affect our mesh
in a negative way and we want to avoid that.
So if you have a model that has things like engraving,
things like threaded holes,
or any really finely detailed features
you probably want to suppress them
or delete them out of your model.
So over here you can see I've got some threading
happening inside of this hole,
which I've actually added as a real feature,
and that's adding a lot of extra complexity
you just don't need.
So if we just left that as a smooth bore
and applied a force to that it would be just fine.
Adding all that extra detail on there
is really only making it harder
for the computer to mesh this,
as well as solve the equations.
So I would recommend getting rid of
or suppressing any type of feature you have like that.
Over here you can see I've got this SOLIDWORKS engraving
on the top of the surface.
It's only 1/5,000 deep into the surface,
it's really not going to affect the strength of this part,
so might as well just get rid of it
or suppress it in your model.
And like I've recommended earlier,
you might want to actually make a copy
of your part you're working on
inside of your real design for the analysis
and you can then simplify, remove features from,
and things like that,
and then once you've kind of refined the design
and really figured out what it needs to be,
then you can modify your original part,
or just do a save as again,
and then swap those parts out in your assembly.
'Cause a lot of times you might be making
quite a few modifications to a part
to optimize it for either weight or strength.
So that being said, let's go ahead and see what happens
if we do adjust the mesh,
if we do try to run this in Simulation.
So let's go ahead over to Evaluate,
let's go to Simulation.
Notice we've got a couple errors in here,
because we used to have a smooth bore
where we're applying this force
and now I've threaded that hole,
so obviously that is gone,
so we need to go back and fix that.
So over here I'm going to click on Next.
Now we've already added Fixtures,
we've already added Loads, we already add a Material,
but my Load is messed up,
so click on Load, go over here and I can change it here,
or I can click on Edit an existing force or pressure.
Here it is, let's go ahead and right-click on it,
and say edit definition.
Alright, and you can see here the Face is this one here.
I can also choose that one inside of there,
see if we can choose the inside, see if that works.
Click OK and that fixes everything,
so now we're back to the way we were.
But sometimes if your geometry is too complicated
it's going to fail just trying to select something
that's really obscure or hard to select.
So I would definitely recommend trying to use flat
or cylindrical faces for what
you're going to be choosing for your model.
Now you've done, we've already chosen the Material,
let's go ahead and go into Run.
And over here, right before you Run Simulation
we have the option to Change settings.
And that is the mesh density.
So click on mesh density here
and you can see I can either roll it
all the way down to Course or all the way up to Fine.
If we go all the way up to Fine
it's going to create a lot more small triangles,
and if I go all the way over here to Course
it's going to be a lot bigger, a lot rougher,
and it's going to be easier to solve.
So you get better results with more small triangles,
but it takes a lot longer, so it's a trade off.
And you also have some other options down here
as far as the size and width of your triangles and so on
you can adjust if you need to.
Most of the time the default setting's
going to work pretty well,
unless you have some very intricate features
that you need to add more triangles
to handle those features.
The other thing, in the full version of Simulation
you have the ability to locally add more triangles
to one area that has more detail,
and you can thin it out
as you go to more big, broader sections.
So you have a couple more options
in the full version of Simulation,
but in this case here you want to choose
something in the middle here
and then click OK, so you're ready to run it.
Now it's going to mesh it,
and more than likely it's going to work in this case here,
because it's really not that complicated,
but the more complicated your design becomes
the bigger the chance of this failing
because it's too detailed or too complicated.
So let's go ahead and if you want to
you can actually right-click over here
and say Show Mesh,
so you can see what those little triangles look like.
And notice over here it automatically started adding
a lot more little triangles in here to work into that area.
And same thing in here, you got a lot of triangles.
So SOLIDWORKS did a pretty good job behind the scenes
of adding more detail where it needs to so solve this model.
So that's great and now we can see
what's happening as far as the mesh,
but just want to keep you aware of what's happening
when you're adding a mesh,
it's not just something going on behind the scenes,
it's actually something you can see here on the screen.
And when the solver goes and works
it's actually going to calculate those values
for each one of these little triangles
and build it all together.
So next thing click on Next, Run the Simulation,
and we've got a pretty good Simulation here, looks good.
So we are getting what we're expecting to get
out of this model, which is great.
If you started with a more complicated model
you definitely want to review that mesh setting
to see what's happening there,
'cause that could be causing an issue for you
as you get into more complicated models
that have more intricate features that you're not
necessarily seeing in a simpler model,
like we're doing here on the screen.
But definitely take a look at those settings
and work through them.
That is your mesh setting profile
and it's pretty simple inside of SimulationXpress,
but as you get into more advanced Simulation packages
defining and refining the mesh is really a key
to getting good results out of Simulation.