Merge 2D Meshes Tool

Merge 2D Meshes

The Merge 2D Meshes tool merges two 2D meshes. The geometries can overlap or not. In areas of overlap, the tool honors the primary mesh, deletes all elements from the secondary mesh that overlap part of the primary mesh plus a buffer around the primary mesh. This prevents the transition zone from becoming so small that poorly shaped elements result. The tool builds transition triangle elements to fill the gap created in this process. The new geometry is created as a 2D mesh.

Limitations:

• This tool only works on 2 geometries at a time. If multiple geometries are to be merged, they must be merged incrementally.
• The Primary mesh must have defined cells/elements. Any disjoint points on the primary mesh will be removed.

Input parameters

• Primary mesh – Select the mesh that will act as the primary mesh. If there are conflicts during the merge, this mesh will receive priority to resolve the conflict.
• Secondary mesh – Select the mesh that will act as the secondary mesh during the merge.
• Duplicate point tolerance – When points are compared as duplicates the distance between the points is calculated. If the distance is less than this tolerance then the points are considered duplicates. This is used for comparing points on the outer boundary of the primary mesh with points in the secondary mesh and trying to preserve cells in the secondary mesh that are adjacent to cells in the primary mesh. The default value is usually sufficient but if you find cells in the secondary mesh are being deleted and you want to preserve those then try increasing the tolerance.
• Buffer distance option – Option for buffering the outer boundary of the primary mesh during the merge operation.
  • Default – The tool will use 0.01 times the minimum cell edge length as the buffer distance.
  • Specified – The tool will use the user specified buffer distance.
    • Buffer distance – specify the desired buffer distance. This is the width of the transition zone between the geomtries.
• Stitch non-overlapping meshes with matching boundary points – Option for merging two meshes that have matching boundary points and no overlapping features. This option should only be used if the user is positive that the meshes satisfy this constraint. A mesh with internal holes will result from using this option when the meshes overlap. The tool will run significantly faster if this option is checked.

Output parameters

• Merged mesh – Enter the name of the new merged mesh.

Current Location in toolbox

2D Mesh/Merge 2D Meshes