Element Cleanup Panel

Use the Element Cleanup panel to perform automatic cleanup of 2D elements based on the element quality criteria from the Quality Index panel or a separate criteria file.

Location: 2D page

Element Cleanup Process

By default, all associated geometry will be utilized as part of the cleanup process (if any exists). If this is not desired, you must disassociate the FE from the geometry.

The cleanup process is automated, but the panel includes many options to affect how it behaves and the types of problems it will attempt to clean up.

Panel Options

Option Action
elems Select elements to perform clean-up.
feature edges Select feature edges (node paths) to preserve during the clean-up process.
anchor nodes Select anchor nodes to preserve during the clean-up process.
consider only affected elems Use only failed elements during the clean-up process.
use adjacent elem layers Define the number of adjacent layers to include for failed elements.
Note: Only available when consider only affected elems is enabled.
keep connectivity with 1D/3D 2D elements that are shared with 1D/3D elements before cleanup should be preserved during cleanup.
elems failing QI check Limit other options by examining whether or not the resulting elements would fail your QI criteria. For example, using tria reduction with this option activated might result in fewer trias being removed, but better overall mesh quality.
reduce tria elems Attempt to combine trias into quads. If you also enable elems failing QI check, the tria reduction will be tempered by the constraints on the resulting quads.

Command Buttons

Button Action
edit criteria Open the Criteria File Editor, from which you can define the quality index (QI) mesh criteria.
edit parameters Open the Parameters File Editor, from which you can define the parameters that determine how far nodes can move away from edges or normal to the surface.
The following parameters are explicitly considered:
  • Move across shared edges, max dist
  • Move across free edges, max dist
  • Offset nodes from surfs, max dist
  • Divide quads into trias
  • Feature angle during element cleanup
  • Folding angle
Note: Associativity is not maintained after nodes are moved away from the geometry, therefore performing element clean-up consecutively may return different results.
cleanup Perform the cleanup on the selected elements, using the currently specified settings.
reject Revert the most recent cleanup operation, provided that you have not left the panel in the meantime.
review Isolate the elements that adhere to the settings defined in the panel, Criteria File Editor, and Parameters File Editor.
return Exit the panel.