Skinning a Mesh

The Skin command takes a range of hexahedra, tetrahedra, blocks, or volumes and generates a collection of triangles or quadrilaterals on the exterior of the volumetric elements. This is the skin mesh.

Skin {Block|Volume} <range> [Individual] [Nomake]

Skin {Element|Hex|Tet|Wedge|Pyramid|Face|Tri|Block|Volume} <range> [Nomake]

Skin {Element|Hex|Tet|Wedge|Pyramid|Face|Tri|Block|Volume} <range> [Make {Block|Sideset [<id>] |Group [<name>|<id>]}

Skin {Element|Hex|Tet|Wedge|Pyramid|Face|Tri|Block|Volume} <range> {Add|Replace} {Block|Sideset [<id>] |Group [<name>|<id>]}

The Individual keyword tells Coreform Cubit to skin Blocks or Volumes, one by one independently of each other, even if they share merged surfaces.

The Nomake keyword tells Coreform Cubit to not create any kind of grouping of the mesh faces resulting from the skinning operation.

If the Make option and its arguments are present, then the specified object (block, sideset or group) receives the skin mesh. The command fails if an object with the optional identifier already exists. If the object identifier is omitted, the identifier is set to the next object of that type. The skin mesh is stored in the next available sideset if the Make option is missing.

Another command form has two options, Add and Replace. Each option has a required, associated identifier. If the identifier is missing or invalid, the command fails. The Add option appends the skin mesh to the object. The Replace option removes any existing mesh from the object before adding the skin mesh.

The skin mesh will respect the merged volumes. If two adjacent volumes are merged, the skin mesh will not include the merged surface. If the volumes are not merged, each volume will generate a separate skin surface. If volumes are not merged, they are treated separately. The skin command will also respect any number of interior voids. All surface elements will be oriented forward with respect to the originating volumes.

The primary use for the skin command is to generate surface meshes of quads or tris for sidesets and remeshing.

For Face and Tri elements (2d elements), the skin is a set of edges (1d elements.) The skin for 3d elements is a set of 2d elements.