How does validate geometry tool works and how important is it?

Eryk Tonder

Hi, 

I'm having a hard time figuring out how does "validate gometry" tool works. 

I have a question, how should I set up a cleanup tolerance? Is proper value important or I can simply type for example 0.00000001 so many of silver surfaces will be ommited, but I'll be able to proceed?

 

acupro

The way I understand it - by default every individual geometry surface/face is explicitly meshed, with the surrounding of the surface/face captured.  If the given mesh size is larger than the geometry surface/face, the mesh elements are 'squeezed' to fit the surface, which can lead to pretty poor quality mesh elements.

The cleanup tolerance is used to determine if there are features (gaps, surfaces, etc) in the geometry smaller than that tolerance value. This can then be used to find those areas that might give issues in meshing which may lead to poor quality and/or failed meshes.  If the Validate tool is flagging many surfaces as sliver surfaces, but you do want to capture those explicitly with the mesh, then try a smaller value of tolerance.  If those are indeed surfaces that are smaller than your intended mesh size, then it's better to clean up the geometry - either at the CAD source, or using the Edge Suppress tool.