Is it possible to re-mesh a solid/part without having to reapply loads in HyperMesh?

Question

Description: As the title suggests, is it possible to re-mesh a solid or shell part that has SPCs and RBE2s etc already attached? Alternatively, if this is not possible once the model has loads or constraints applied in this manner, is there an alternative way to approach modelling that is typically used to get around this issue?

My currently modelling approach has me deleting the elements and then manually having to reapply the RBEs Loads and constraints to a model that became linked to the mesh. This seems different to other software such as abaqus where re-seeding and remeshing a part does not require re application of loads and can be run again straight away. This makes mesh convergence analysis and quick tests extremely difficult to do for more complicated models. Surely there is a better way of doing this?

Product/Topic Name : Altair HyperMesh with OptiStruct Solver

Joachim_B · Accepted Answer

Hi Matthew,

For Shell and Solid Parts, you can use the Edit Tools to adjust your mesh.

For Shell Parts, you can simply select the elements and have them remeshed using the Freeform Mesher, for example.

For Solid Parts, you can use Tet/Remesh to rebuild the Tetmesh, and the RBEs should be preserved.

For solid parts with Hexa, the only option I know of is the Split function under Edit Elements/Split/Solid.

So there are a few options available.

However, the workflow that has worked well for us is to place RBEs with boundary conditions and forces into a separate component. That way, I can select the elements from my part without deleting the RBEs in the process.

We also wrote a small script that lets me select all free RBEs. In the next step, I select the corresponding components and then reconnect the RBEs to those components. It works much like the Equivalence Tool, except that here only the free nodes of the RBEs are taken into account.

I hope that helps you.

Best regards,

Joachim