Slot Surface Preparation with the Geometry Power Tool

This page describes the slot surfaces diagnostic tool that is part of Cubit's Geometry Power Tool. The Slot Surfaces diagnostic is a new addition to the geometry power tool for preparing slot surfaces in Electromagnetic (EM) modeling. A slot surface is used to identify potential pathways where EM radiation can potentially exit. This diagnostic will help manage slot surfaces and prepare them for the application of boundary conditions and analysis. This diagnostic utilizes Machine Learning (ML) to predict the most likely slot surfaces.

Background

The Geometry Power Tool in Cubit provides a series of diagnostic checks on your model used to defeature or simplify a CAD model prior to meshing. Clicking the Analyze button will perform the selected diagnostic tests and display an expanding tree listing geometric entities that are identified by each test. Once identified, suggested solutions can be easily previewed and executed.

The Slot Surfaces diagnostics work best in conjunction with the machine learning models. As such, to use this diagnostic the Load ML Models button must first be selected using the procedure described in the page Machine Learning with the Geometry Power Tool.

Figure 1. Example volume showing slot surface highlighted.

Figure 2. Slot Surfaces diagnostic displayed with Solution window.

Slot Surfaces

The Slot Surfaces diagnostic is only available when the ML Models have been previously loaded in the Options panel. Once the ML models are loaded, select the Slot Surfaces diagnostic from the list of diagnostic tools. When this diagnostic is selected, the analyze button will identify all surfaces that are identified as slots. The surfaces will be separated into two groups: simple and complex.

1. Simple Slots: Simple slots have four sides and can be used directly for representing slots without further decomposition.
2. Complex Slots: Complex slots can be comprised of groups of adjacent surfaces or can be a single surface that may require additional decomposition. For example, a gasket-type surface between two volumes that may be held together with bolts or another type of fastener. Each grouping of surfaces in the complex category can be expanded and individual surfaces selected. Selecting a surface will display potential reduce operations in the solution window.

Solutions Window

If the Show Solutions checkbox is selected, a list of potential decomposition strategies will be listed in the solutions window. The decomposition strategies will be variations of the reduce surface slot command. Selecting a solution will preview where cuts will occur and double-clicking will execute the cuts. If fasteners are present, the ML tools should identify them and use them in the reduce surface slot commands presented in the solutions window.

Right-Click Menu Options

The slot surfaces diagnostics provide many of the same visualization options available with the other diagnostics. A few additional tools, useful for shell modeling, are also provided and described here:

Export Slot Data

This option supports the setup of a Morph input deck and will execute the command export slot data. Morph is an external meshing tool developed at Sandia. Morph supports slot surfaces for modeling EM, but requires named surfaces and curves to identify the correct topology. When selected, a file browser will appear where a filename can be specified. A text file will then be written with the necessary information needed for Morph input for slot surfaces.

List Slot Data

Executes the command export slot data preview. Similar to the Export Slot Data... menu option, rather than writing a text file, the information will be echoed to the Cubit output window.

Reduce Slot Surface

Available when selecting a solution in the solutions window. The command panel for reducing surface slots will appear. This panel provides options to input the hardware and radius information, automatically populating the necessary fields based on the slot geometry. Additionally, users have the ability to specify grouping and naming options for the decomposed slot surfaces.