▼Coreform Cubit™ Reference Manual
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Coreform Cubit™ Reference Manual
2022.11
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Coreform Cubit™ Reference Manual

With the release of Coreform Cubit™ 2020.2, the name of the former product, Trelis, is no longer used. When encountered the name "Trelis" is functionally equivalent to "Coreform Cubit" or "Cubit" or "CUBIT".

New In Coreform Cubit: Check out all the latest features in Coreform Cubit .

Introduction: A quick overview of some of the main features and goals of the Coreform Cubit Mesh Generation Toolkit, hardware requirements, and where to go for help.

The Power of Customization: A guide for customizing Coreform Cubit workflows and user interface.

Controlling The Application: A description of the Coreform Cubit user environment, including using the graphical user interface, session control, command line syntax, journal files, graphics, entity picking, saving and restoring, etc.

Geometry Operations: A description of Coreform Cubit’s geometry features including building geometry from scratch, manipulating geometry in Coreform Cubit, importing and exporting geometry formats, etc.

Mesh Generation: A description of Coreform Cubit’s mesh generation capabilities, including how to mesh geometry, meshing and smoothing schemes, setting sizes and intervals, importing a mesh, etc.

U-splines: A description of Coreform Cubit’s implementation of Coreform’s revolutionary U-spline technology.

The Finite Element Model: How to set up the finite element model for analysis, including defining boundary conditions, material properties, exporting the finite element model, etc.

Immersive Topology Environment for Meshing (ITEM): A description of Coreform Cubit’s interactive meshing wizard including how to use the wizard, and a guide to geometry clean-up, setting up the finite element model, mesh generation in ITEM, etc.

(part "coreform-ui"): A guide to the use, design, and enhancement of the Coreform Cubit user interface.

Appendix

Known Issues: A listing of known issues in Coreform Cubit

Credits

    1 New In Coreform Cubit

      1.1 Release Notes: Coreform Cubit 2022.11

        1.1.1 Support for Python 2 has been deprecated

        1.1.2 Updates to the build uspline command

        1.1.3 Graphical User Interface

          1.1.3.1 Model tree performance

          1.1.3.2 Increased control of Command panel layout

        1.1.4 Meshing

          1.1.4.1 Superelement support

          1.1.4.2 Improvements to Exodus sizing

          1.1.4.3 Select blocks by element type

          1.1.4.4 Enhanced ability to obtain mesh in blocks, sidesets, and nodesets

          1.1.4.5 New option in collapse tet command

          1.1.4.6 Syntax changes for set node constraint command

          1.1.4.7 Tetmesh Default

          1.1.4.8 Triangle remeshing

          1.1.4.9 Composite surface meshing

          1.1.4.10 Duplicate corner triangles

          1.1.4.11 Minimum edge length

          1.1.4.12 Sizing on discrete curves

          1.1.4.13 Clean discrete mesh command

          1.1.4.14 Sculpt enhancements

          1.1.4.15 Paving with small features

        1.1.5 Geometry

          1.1.5.1 Webcut with offset surfaces

          1.1.5.2 Specify surfaces by normal

          1.1.5.3 Specify surfaces by location with tolerance

          1.1.5.4 STEP export now writes out names

          1.1.5.5 Restricted stitch command

          1.1.5.6 Regularize command keep option

          1.1.5.7 Imprint with tolerance

          1.1.5.8 Include parsing

        1.1.6 Miscellaneous

          1.1.6.1 Draw remove command

          1.1.6.2 Pyramid element support

          1.1.6.3 OpenFOAM boundary patches

          1.1.6.4 Lite mode improvements

          1.1.6.5 New GDF exporter

          1.1.6.6 New OBJ importer

          1.1.6.7 Importing with block names

        1.1.7 New CubitInterface functions

        1.1.8 Defects Fixed in Coreform Cubit 2022.11

      1.2 Release Notes: Coreform Cubit 2022.4

        1.2.1 U-splines

        1.2.2 Graphical User Interface

          1.2.2.1  Selection by entity name in graphics window

          1.2.2.2  Select Chamfer Chain

        1.2.3  Meshing

          1.2.3.1  New Mass Increase Ratio metric added to Cubit

          1.2.3.2  Geometry-Aware Spider Blocks

        1.2.4  Geometry

          1.2.4.1 ACIS kernel updated to Version 2021.1.0.1

        1.2.5 Sculpt

          1.2.5.1 New Sculpt options

        1.2.6  Graphics, Utilities, etc.

          1.2.6.1  Enhancements to Free Entity Selection

          1.2.6.2 Added support for Corvid Velodyne files

          1.2.6.3  New CubitInterface functions

        1.2.7  Defects Fixed in Coreform Cubit 2022.4

        1.2.8  Enhancements in Coreform Cubit 2022.4

      1.3 Release Notes: Coreform Cubit 2021.11

    2 Introduction

      2.1 How to Use This Manual

      2.2 Key Features

        2.2.1 Geometry Creation, Modification, and Healing

        2.2.2 Isogeometric analysis

        2.2.3 Non-Manifold Topology

        2.2.4 Geometry Decomposition

        2.2.5 Mesh Generation

        2.2.6 Boundary Conditions

        2.2.8 Graphics Display Capabilities

        2.2.9 Graphical User Interface

        2.2.10 Command Line Interface

      2.3 Cubit Support

      2.4 Hardware Requirements

      2.5 Trademark Notice

    3 Controlling The Application

      3.1 Session Control

        3.1.1 Starting and Exiting a Cubit Session

          3.1.1.1 Starting the Session in Cubit Command Mode

          3.1.1.3 Windows File Association

        3.1.2 Execution Command Syntax

        3.1.3 Initialization Files

        3.1.4 Environment Variables

        3.1.5 Environment Commands

          3.1.5.10 Examples

        3.1.6 Command Syntax

        3.1.7 Command Line Help

        3.1.8 Saving and Restoring a Cubit Session

      3.2 Graphical User Interface

        3.2.1 Coreform Cubit™ Application Window

        3.2.2 Command Panels

          3.2.2.1 Command Panel Functionality

        3.2.3 Drop Down Menus

        3.2.4 Options Menu

        3.2.5 Undo Button

          3.2.5.1 Limitations

        3.2.6 Graphics Window

          3.2.6.1 Viewing Curve Valence

          3.2.6.2 Selecting Entities in the GUI

          3.2.6.3 Key Press Commands for the GUI

          3.2.6.4 Right Click Commands for the GUI Graphics Window

          3.2.6.5 View Navigation in the GUI

        3.2.7 Tree View

          3.2.7.1 Model Tree

          3.2.7.2 Power Tools

          3.2.7.3 Geometry Power Tools

          3.2.7.4 Meshing Tools

          3.2.7.5 Mesh Quality Tools

        3.2.8 Command Line Workspace

        3.2.9 Journal File Editor

        3.2.10 Property Page

        3.2.11 Toolbars

      3.3 Recording And Playback

        3.3.1 Journal File Creation and Playback

        3.3.2 Controlling Playback of Journal Files

        3.3.3 Automatic Journal File Creation

        3.3.4 Idless Journal Files

      3.4 Graphics Window Control

        3.4.1 Command Line View Navigation: Zoom, Pan and Rotate

        3.4.2 Mouse Based View Navigation: Zoom, Pan and Rotate

        3.4.3 Updating the Display

        3.4.4 Graphics Modes

        3.4.5 Drawing, Locating, and Highlighting Entities

        3.4.6 Graphics Clipping Plane

        3.4.7 Colors

        3.4.8 Drawing Locations, Lines and Polygons

        3.4.9 Entity Labels

        3.4.10 Graphics Camera

        3.4.11 Graphics Window Size and Position

        3.4.12 Hardcopy Output

        3.4.13 Graphics Lighting Model

        3.4.14 Mesh Visualization

        3.4.15 Miscellaneous Graphics Options

        3.4.16 Saving Graphics Views

        3.4.17 Geometry and Mesh Entity Visibility

      3.5 Entity Selection And Filtering

        3.5.1 Command Line Entity Specification

        3.5.2 Extended Command Line Entity Specification

        3.5.3 Selecting Entities with the Mouse

            3.5.3.1.1 Specifying the type of entity to select

            3.5.3.1.2 Selecting the entities

            3.5.3.6.1 The Selection Keyword

            3.5.3.6.2 Echoing the ID of the Selection

            3.5.3.6.3 Using the Picked Group in Commands

            3.5.3.7.1 Creating and Modifying Selections

            3.5.3.7.2 Rubberband Selection Control

        3.5.4 Extended Selection Dialog

      3.6 Location, Direction, Plane and Axis Specification

        3.6.2 Specifying a Location

        3.6.3 Specifying a Location on a Curve

        3.6.4 Specifying a Direction

        3.6.5 Specifying an Axis

        3.6.6 Specifying a Plane

        3.6.7 Drawing a Location, Direction, or Axis

      3.7 Listing Information

        3.7.1 List Model Summary

        3.7.2 List Geometry

          3.7.2.1 List Names Example

          3.7.2.2 List Surface [range] Ids’ Examples

          3.7.2.3 Using ’List’ for Querying Connectivity.

        3.7.3 List Mesh

        3.7.4 List Special Entities

        3.7.5 List Cubit Environment

          3.7.5.2 Sample output

    4 Geometry Operations

      4.1 Cubit Geometry Formats

        4.1.5 ACIS Geometry Kernel

        4.1.6 Mesh-Based Geometry

            4.1.6.2.1 Using tolerance on STL files

            4.1.6.2.2 Using the stitch option on AVS and facet files

            4.1.6.2.3 Using the improve option on facet files.

            4.1.6.2.4 Smoothing faceted surfaces.

            4.1.6.2.5 Creating a thin offset volume

            4.1.6.2.6 Creating volumes from surfaces

      4.2 Geometry Creation

        4.2.1 Bottom-Up Geometry Creation

          4.2.1.1 Creating Volumes

            4.2.1.1.1 Sweep Surface Along Vector

            4.2.1.1.2 Sweep Surface About Axis

            4.2.1.1.3 Sweep Surface Along Curve

            4.2.1.1.4 Sweep Surface Perpendicular

            4.2.1.1.5 Sweep Surface to a Volume

            4.2.1.1.6 Offset

            4.2.1.1.7 Sheet Extended from Surface

            4.2.1.1.8 Sweep Curve About Axis

            4.2.1.1.9 Stitch Surfaces Together

            4.2.1.1.10 Loft Surfaces Together

            4.2.1.1.11 Thicken Surfaces

            4.2.1.1.12 Sweeping a Surface to a Plane

            4.2.1.1.13 Sweep Surface along a Direction

            4.2.1.1.14 Sweep Surface along Helix

            4.2.1.1.15 Volume Copy

          4.2.1.2 Creating Curves

            4.2.1.2.1 Straight

            4.2.1.2.2 Parabolic, Circular, Ellipse

            4.2.1.2.3 Spline

            4.2.1.2.4 Example

            4.2.1.2.5 Copy

            4.2.1.2.6 Combine Existing Curves

            4.2.1.2.7 Arc Three

            4.2.1.2.8 Arc End Vertices and Radius

            4.2.1.2.9 Arc Center Vertex

            4.2.1.2.10 Arc Center Angle

            4.2.1.2.11 From Vertex Onto Curve

            4.2.1.2.12 Offset

            4.2.1.2.13 From Mesh Edge

            4.2.1.2.14 Close To

            4.2.1.2.15 Surface Intersection

            4.2.1.2.16 By Projection

            4.2.1.2.17 Creating a Helix

            4.2.1.2.18 Tangents

            4.2.1.2.19 Examples

          4.2.1.3 Creating Surfaces

            4.2.1.3.1 Bounding Curves

            4.2.1.3.2 Bounding Vertices or Nodes

            4.2.1.3.3 Copy

            4.2.1.3.4 Extended Surface

            4.2.1.3.5 Planar Surface

            4.2.1.3.6 Net Surface

            4.2.1.3.7 Offset

            4.2.1.3.8 Skinning

            4.2.1.3.9 Sweeping of Curves

            4.2.1.3.10 Midsurface

            4.2.1.3.11 Weld Profile

            4.2.1.3.12 Creating A Surface From Mesh Entities

            4.2.1.3.13 Creating a Circular Surface

            4.2.1.3.14 Creating a Parallelogram

            4.2.1.3.15 Creating an Ellipse

            4.2.1.3.16 Creating a Rectangle

          4.2.1.4 Creating Vertices

            4.2.1.4.1 XYZ location

            4.2.1.4.2 On Curve - Fraction

            4.2.1.4.3 On Curve - General

            4.2.1.4.4 From Vertex

            4.2.1.4.5 At Arc

            4.2.1.4.6 At Intersection

        4.2.2 Geometric Primitives

          4.2.2.2 Creating Bricks

          4.2.2.3 Creating Frustums/Cones

          4.2.2.4 Creating Pyramids

          4.2.2.5 Creating Toruses

          4.2.2.6 Creating Cylinders

          4.2.2.7 Creating Prisms

          4.2.2.8 Creating Spheres

      4.3 Geometry Transforms

        4.3.1 Align Command

        4.3.2 Copy Command

        4.3.3 Move Command

        4.3.4 Scale Command

        4.3.5 Rotate Command

        4.3.6 Reflect Command

      4.4 Geometry Booleans

        4.4.1 Intersect

        4.4.2 Subtract

        4.4.3 Unite

      4.5 Geometry Decomposition

        4.5.1 Splitting Geometry

          4.5.1.1 Split Curve

          4.5.1.2 Split Periodic Surfaces

          4.5.1.3 Split Surface

              4.5.1.3.3.1 Logical Rectangle

              4.5.1.3.3.2 Split Orientation

              4.5.1.3.3.3 Corner Specification

              4.5.1.3.3.4 Direction

              4.5.1.3.3.5 Segment|Fraction|Distance

              4.5.1.3.3.6 Through Vertex

              4.5.1.3.3.7 Parametric

              4.5.1.3.3.8 Tolerance

              4.5.1.3.3.9 Preview

              4.5.1.3.3.10 Settings

        4.5.2 Web Cutting

          4.5.2.2 Web Cutting with an Arbitrary Surface

          4.5.2.3 Chop Command

          4.5.2.4 Web Cutting with a Planar or Cylindrical Surface

          4.5.2.5 Web Cutting by Sweeping Curves or Surfaces

          4.5.2.6 Web Cutting using a Tool or Sheet Body

            4.5.2.6.1 Webcut with Existing Tool Body

            4.5.2.6.2 Webcut with Curve Loop

            4.5.2.6.3 Webcut with Offset Surfaces

          4.5.2.7 Web Cutting Options

        4.5.3 Section Command

        4.5.4 Separating Surfaces from Bodies

        4.5.5 Separating Multi-Volume Bodies

      4.6 Geometry Cleanup and Defeaturing

        4.6.1 Automatic Geometry Clean-up

          4.6.1.1 Automatic Forced Sweepability

            4.6.1.1.1 Example

          4.6.1.2 Automatic Surface Split

            4.6.1.2.1 Example

          4.6.1.3 Automatic Small Curve Removal

          4.6.1.4 Automatic Small Surface Removal

            4.6.1.4.1 Example

        4.6.2 Healing

          4.6.2.1 Analyzing Geometry

          4.6.2.2 Auto Healing

          4.6.2.3 Healing Attributes

          4.6.2.4 Spline Removal

          4.6.2.5 What if Healing is Unsuccessful?

        4.6.3 Removing Geometric Features

          4.6.3.1 Removing Surfaces

          4.6.3.2 Removing Vertices

        4.6.4 Tweaking Geometry

          4.6.4.1 Tweaking Curves

          4.6.4.2 Tweak Remove Topology

          4.6.4.3 Tweaking Surfaces

              4.6.4.3.7.1 Hole Removal Example

              4.6.4.3.8.1 Fillet Removal Example

            4.6.4.3.9 Changing the Taper of Surfaces

          4.6.4.4 Tweaking Vertices

          4.6.4.5 Tweak Volume Bend

            4.6.4.5.1 Example

        4.6.5 Debugging Geometry

          4.6.5.1 Related Commands

        4.6.6 Finding Surface Overlap

            4.6.6.2.1 Facet - Absolute/Angle

            4.6.6.2.2 Gap - Minimum/Maximum

            4.6.6.2.3 Angle - Minimum/Maximum

            4.6.6.2.4 Normal

            4.6.6.2.5 Tolerance

            4.6.6.2.6 Group

            4.6.6.2.7 List

            4.6.6.2.8 Display

            4.6.6.2.9 Body

            4.6.6.2.10 Imprint

        4.6.7 Geometry Accuracy

        4.6.8 Regularizing Geometry

        4.6.9 Removing Blunt Tangencies

        4.6.10 Stitching Sheet Bodies

        4.6.11 Trimming and Extending Curves

        4.6.12 Validating Geometry

      4.7 Geometry Imprinting and Merging

        4.7.1 Examining Merged Entities

        4.7.2 Imprinting Geometry

        4.7.3 Merge Tolerance

        4.7.4 Merging Geometry

        4.7.5 Using Geometry Merging to Verify Geometry

        4.7.6 Unmerging

      4.8 Virtual Geometry

        4.8.1 Collapse Geometry

          4.8.1.1 Collapse Angle

            4.8.1.1.1 Simple

            4.8.1.1.2 Complete

          4.8.1.2 Collapse Curve

          4.8.1.3 Collapse Surface

        4.8.2 Composite Geometry

          4.8.2.1 Composite Curves

          4.8.2.2 Composite Surfaces

        4.8.3 Partitioned Geometry

          4.8.3.1 Partitioned Curves

          4.8.3.2 Partitioned Surfaces

          4.8.3.3 Partitioned Volumes

          4.8.3.4 Using Mesh Intersections to Partition Surfaces

          4.8.3.5 Removing Partitions

        4.8.4 Deleting Virtual Geometry

        4.8.5 Simplify Geometry

      4.9 Geometry Orientation

      4.10 Groups

        4.10.1 Basic Group Operations

        4.10.2 Groups in Graphics

        4.10.3 Group Propagation

        4.10.4 Propagated Groups

        4.10.5 Propagated Hex Groups

        4.10.6 Quality Groups

        4.10.7 Seeded Mesh Groups

      4.11 Geometry Attributes

        4.11.1 Entity IDs

        4.11.2 Entity Names

        4.11.3 Persistent Attributes

          4.11.3.1 Attribute Behavior

          4.11.3.2 Attribute Commands

          4.11.3.3 Attribute Types

          4.11.3.4 Using Cubit Attributes

      4.12 Entity Measurement

      4.13 Geometry Deletion

      4.14 Exporting Geometry

        4.14.1 Exporting ACIS Files

        4.14.2 Exporting Facet and STL Files

        4.14.3 Exporting IGES Files

        4.14.4 Exporting STEP Files

      4.15 Importing Geometry

        4.15.2 Importing ACIS Files

          4.15.2.1 Import Options

        4.15.3 Importing Facet Files

        4.15.4 Importing FASTQ Files

        4.15.5 Importing Granite Files

        4.15.6 Importing IGES Files

          4.15.6.1 Import Options

        4.15.7 Importing STEP Files

          4.15.7.1 Import Options

          4.15.7.2 Import Settings

    5 Meshing Operations

      5.1 Mesh Generation

      5.2 Meshing the Geometry

      5.3 Interval Assignment

        5.3.1 Interval Assignment

        5.3.2 Additional Interval Constraints

        5.3.3 Automatic Specification of Interval Size

        5.3.4 Explicit Specification of Intervals

        5.3.5 Specification of Intervals Using Approximate Size

        5.3.6 Interval Firmness

        5.3.7 Interval Matching

        5.3.8 Mesh Interval Preview

        5.3.9 Periodic Intervals

        5.3.10 Relative Intervals

        5.3.11 Vertex Sizing and Automatic Curve Biasing

        5.3.12 List Interval

      5.4 Meshing Schemes

        5.4.7 Automatic Scheme Selection

        5.4.8 Conversion

          5.4.8.1 HTet

          5.4.8.2 QTri

          5.4.8.3 THex

          5.4.8.4 TQuad

        5.4.9 Copying a Mesh

        5.4.10 Radialmesh

        5.4.11 Parallel Meshing

          5.4.11.1 Sculpt

              5.4.11.1.1.3 Sculpt Process Flow

          5.4.11.2 Sculpt Adaptive Meshing

          5.4.11.3 Sculpt Application

          5.4.11.4 Sculpt Boundary Conditions

          5.4.11.5 Sculpt Boundary Layers

          5.4.11.6 Sculpt Command Summary

          5.4.11.7 Sculpt GUI

          5.4.11.8 Sculpt Mesh Improvement

            5.4.11.8.1 

          5.4.11.9 Sculpt Input Data Files

          5.4.11.10 Sculpt Mesh Type

          5.4.11.11 Sculpt Output

          5.4.11.12 Sculpt Process Control

          5.4.11.13 Sculpt Overlay Grid Specification

          5.4.11.14 Sculpt Smoothing

          5.4.11.15 Sculpt Technical Description

          5.4.11.16 Sculpt Mesh Transformation

          5.4.11.17 brick1.stl

          5.4.11.18 brick2.stl

          5.4.11.19 bricks.diatom

        5.4.12 Traditional

          5.4.12.1 Bias, Dualbias

          5.4.12.2 Circle

          5.4.12.3 Curvature

          5.4.12.4 Equal

          5.4.12.5 Hole

          5.4.12.6 Mapping

          5.4.12.7 Pave

          5.4.12.8 Pentagon

          5.4.12.9 Pinpoint

          5.4.12.10 Polyhedron

          5.4.12.11 Quad Dominant

          5.4.12.12 Sphere

          5.4.12.13 STransition

          5.4.12.14 Stretch

          5.4.12.15 Stride

          5.4.12.16 Submap

          5.4.12.17 Surface Vertex Types

          5.4.12.18 Sweep

          5.4.12.19 TetMesh

          5.4.12.20 Tetprimitive

          5.4.12.21 TriAdvance

          5.4.12.22 TriDelaunay

          5.4.12.23 TriMap

          5.4.12.24 TriMesh

          5.4.12.25 TriPave

          5.4.12.26 TriPrimitive

      5.5 Mesh Quality Assessment

        5.5.1 Automatic Mesh Quality Assessment

        5.5.2 Coincident Node Check

        5.5.3 Controlling Mesh Quality

        5.5.4 Metrics for Edge Elements

        5.5.5 Finding Intersecting Mesh

        5.5.6 Metrics for Hexahedral Elements

        5.5.7 Mesh Quality Example Output

        5.5.8 Mesh Quality Command Syntax

          5.5.8.1 Quality Options

            5.5.8.1.1 Draw

            5.5.8.1.2 List

            5.5.8.1.3 Filter

        5.5.9 Metrics for Quadrilateral Elements

        5.5.10 Metrics for Tetrahedral Elements

        5.5.11 Mesh Topology Check

        5.5.12 Metrics for Triangular Elements

        5.5.13 Metrics for Wedge Elements

      5.6 Mesh Modification

        5.6.1 Mesh Smoothing

          5.6.1.5 Adjust Boundary Orthogonal

          5.6.1.6 Centroid Area Pull

          5.6.1.7 Condition Number

          5.6.1.8 Edge Length

          5.6.1.9 Equipotential

          5.6.1.10 Laplacian

          5.6.1.11 Mean Ratio

          5.6.1.12 Smart Laplacian

          5.6.1.13 Untangle

          5.6.1.14 Winslow

        5.6.2 Align Mesh

        5.6.3 Block Repositioning

        5.6.4 Collapsing Mesh

        5.6.5 Creating and Merging Mesh Elements

        5.6.6 Edge Swapping

        5.6.7 Matching Tetrahedral Meshes

        5.6.8 Mesh Cleanup

        5.6.9 Mesh Coarsening

        5.6.10 Mesh Column Operations

        5.6.11 Mesh Refinement

        5.6.12 Mesh Scaling for Flexible Hex Refinement

        5.6.13 Node and Nodeset Repositioning

        5.6.14 Mesh Pillowing

        5.6.15 Remeshing

        5.6.16 Hexset Command

      5.7 Mesh Validity

      5.8 Adaptivity And Sizing Functions

        5.8.1 Mesh Adaptivity and Sizing Functions

        5.8.2 Bias Sizing Function

        5.8.3 Constant Sizing Function

        5.8.4 Curvature Sizing Function

        5.8.5 Exodus II-based Field Function

        5.8.6 Geometry Adaptive Sizing Function (Skeleton Sizing)

          5.8.6.6 Limitations

        5.8.7 Interval Sizing Function

        5.8.8 Inverse Sizing Function

        5.8.9 Linear Sizing Function

        5.8.10 Sizing Source Sizing Function

        5.8.11 Geometry Adaptive for TriMesh and TetMesh Schemes

      5.9 Mesh Deletion

      5.10 Free Meshes

      5.11 Skinning a Mesh

      5.12 Mesh Import

        5.12.1 Importing a Mesh

        5.12.2 Importing 2D Exodus Files

        5.12.3 Importing Abaqus Files

        5.12.4 Importing Exodus II Files

        5.12.5 Importing Fluent Files

        5.12.6 Importing I-DEAS Files

        5.12.7 Importing Nastran Files

        5.12.8 Importing Patran Files

        5.12.9 Lite Meshes

    6 U-splines

      6.1 U-splines

        6.1.1 Current Limitations

      6.2 Basic CAD to U-spline workflow

        6.2.1 Building U-spline surfaces

        6.2.2 Building U-spline volumes

          6.2.2.1  Map

          6.2.2.2  SubMap

          6.2.2.3  Sweep

            6.2.2.3.1 Source surfaces must be contiguous in many-to-one swept meshes

            6.2.2.3.2 Entities cannot be creased using build crease group

          6.2.2.4  Sphere

          6.2.2.5  Polyhedron

          6.2.2.6  TetPrimitive

        6.2.3 Commands

          6.2.3.1 set uspline

          6.2.3.2 build uspline

          6.2.3.3 fit uspline

          6.2.3.4 quality uspline

          6.2.3.5 draw uspline

          6.2.3.6 draw uspline projection_error

          6.2.3.7 remove uspline

      6.3 Automatic creasing of U-splines

        6.3.1 Creasing of extraordinary vertices

        6.3.2 Continuity grading near creased vertices

        6.3.3 Maintaining distance between perpendicular continuity transitions

        6.3.4 Global creasing options

        6.3.5 Automatic minimal creasing example on a Cubit mesh

        6.3.6 Automatic full creasing on a Cubit mesh

        6.3.7 Automatic full creasing with user-specified creased edges

        6.3.8 Automatic minimial creasing with user-specified creased edges

        6.3.9 U-spline creasing commands

          6.3.9.1 build uspline crease group

      6.4 Display U-spline projection error in Cubit

      6.5 Save and load U-splines with Cubit file

        6.5.1 Saving considerations

        6.5.2 History and snapshots

      6.6 Exporting U-splines

        6.6.1 Export formats

        6.6.2 Special options for BEXT U-spline export

          6.6.2.1 Exporting block-partitioned BEXT U-splines

          6.6.2.2 Exporting U-splines with LS-DYNA node sets

          6.6.2.3 Exporting block-partitioned U-splines with node sets

          6.6.2.4 Specifying node offsets to prevent node ID collision

    7 The Finite Element Model

      7.1 Global Element IDs

      7.2 Exodus

        7.2.1 Element Block Specification

        7.2.2 Exodus II File Specification

        7.2.3 Exodus II Model Title

        7.2.4 Exodus Coordinate Frames

        7.2.5 Defining Materials and Media Types

        7.2.6 Exodus Boundary Conditions and Element Types

        7.2.7 Nodeset and Sideset Specification

      7.3 Non Exodus

        7.3.1 Cubit Boundary Conditions

        7.3.2 Using CFD Boundary Conditions

        7.3.3 Using Constraints

        7.3.4 Using Contact Surfaces

        7.3.5 Cubit Initial Conditions

        7.3.6 Using Loads

        7.3.7 Miscellaneous Boundary Condition Commands

          7.3.7.1 Delete

          7.3.7.2 List

          7.3.7.3 Draw

          7.3.7.4 Highlight

        7.3.8 Using Restraints

        7.3.9 Boundary Condition Sets

      7.4 Export

        7.4.1 Exporting the Finite Element Model

        7.4.2 Defining PARAMS for NASTRAN

        7.4.3 Instancing Parts with ABAQUS

        7.4.4 Exporting ANSYS CDB files

        7.4.5 Exporting an Exodus II File

        7.4.6 Exporting Fluent Grid Files

        7.4.7 Exporting Sierra Files

        7.4.8 Transforming Mesh Coordinates

    8 Customizing The User Experience

      8.1 The Power of Customization

        8.1.1 Customization Options

          8.1.1.1 Cubit Software Development Kit (SDK) for C++

          8.1.1.2 Cubit-Python Interface

          8.1.1.3 Cubit Style Sheets

          8.1.1.4 Extended Selection Dialog

          8.1.1.5 Workflow Customization

          8.1.1.6 Adding Command Panels to the GUI

      8.2 Adding Command Panels to the GUI

      8.3 Workflows and Toolbars

        8.3.1 Importing an Existing Toolbar

        8.3.2 Creating a New Toolbar

          8.3.2.1 Creating a Command Panel Button

            8.3.2.1.1 Use the definition dialog

            8.3.2.1.2 Use the context menu on a command panel

            8.3.2.1.3 Drag a command panel onto the toolbar

          8.3.2.2 Creating a Journal File Button

          8.3.2.3 Creating a Python Script Button

          8.3.2.4 Creating a Basic Tool Button

          8.3.2.5 Modifying an Existing Toolbar

        8.3.3 Exporting a Toolbar

    9 Immersive Topology Environment for Meshing (ITEM)

      9.1  Guiding the user through the workflow.

      9.2  Providing the user with smart options.

      9.3  Automating geometry and meshing tasks.

      9.4 Some ITEM tools found elsewhere in the GUI

      9.5 Generating a Mesh in ITEM

      9.6 Clean Up the Geometry

        9.6.1 Bad geometry representation

        9.6.2 Small details in the model

        9.6.3 Building a Sweepable Topology

          9.6.3.1 Blend Surfaces

          9.6.3.2 Geometry Decomposition

          9.6.3.3 Recognizing Nearly Sweepable Regions

          9.6.3.4 Forced Sweepability

        9.6.4 Resolving Problems with Conformal Assemblies

        9.6.5 Contact Surfaces

        9.6.6 Determining an Appropriate Merge Tolerance

        9.6.7 Determining the Small Feature Size

      9.7 How to Use the ITEM Wizard

      9.8 Defining the Geometric Model

        9.8.1 Geometry Formats

        9.8.2  Creating your own geometry

        9.8.3 Scripting

        9.8.4 CUB Files

        9.8.5 Cubit Files

      9.9 Setting up the Finite Element Model

        9.9.1 Element Shape

        9.9.2 FEA Model Size

      9.10 Validating the Mesh in ITEM

    10 Boundary Layers

    11 Python API

      11.1 Python Interface

      11.2 Importing Cubit into Python

      11.3  CubitInterface Namespace Reference

        11.3.1  op_type Description Entity1 Entity2 Params

      11.4  Entity

        11.4.1  Inheritance diagram for Entity:

      11.5  GeomEntity

        11.5.1  Inheritance diagram for GeomEntity:

      11.6  Body

        11.6.1  Inheritance diagram for Body:

      11.7  Volume

        11.7.1  Inheritance diagram for Volume:

      11.8  Surface

        11.8.1  Inheritance diagram for Surface:

      11.9  Curve

        11.9.1  Inheritance diagram for Curve:

      11.10  Vertex

        11.10.1  Inheritance diagram for Vertex:

      11.11  CubitFailureException

        11.11.1  Inheritance diagram for CubitFailureException:

      11.12  InvalidEntityException

        11.12.1  Inheritance diagram for InvalidEntityException:

      11.13  InvalidInputException

        11.13.1  Inheritance diagram for InvalidInputException:

      11.14  MeshErrorFeedback

      11.15  Mesh Import

      11.16  CFD_BC_Entity

      11.17  Dir

      11.18  Loc

      11.19 Using PyQt5 Addons

        11.19.1 Corvid PyQt5 Addon Instructions

          11.19.1.1 Linux or macOS Instructions

          11.19.1.2 Windows Instructions

        11.19.2 Porting from PyQt4 to PyQt5

        11.19.3 Future: Pyside Addon Instructions

    12 Cubit commands quick reference

      12.1 Geometry

      12.2 File import

      12.3 Program

      12.4 Entity parsing

      12.5 Groups

      12.6 Graphics

      12.7 Settings

    13 Coreform Lattice GC

      13.1 Lattice GC command reference

        13.1.1 build uspline lattice

        13.1.2 fold uspline lattice ref geom

        13.1.3 export uspline lattice tessellation

    14 Cubit Workflows

      14.1 Building U-spline lattices

        14.1.1 Basic lattice workflow

        14.1.2 User-defined reference cells

          14.1.2.1 Creating reference cells in Coreform Cubit

          14.1.2.2 Building lattice structures with user-defined reference cells

        14.1.3 Creating a surface offset

        14.1.4 Building and slicing a lattice in the GUI

      14.2 Building U-spline meshes for ANSYS LS-DYNA analyses

        14.2.1 Automotive preprocessing in Coreform Cubit

          14.2.1.1 Importing CAD model geometry

            14.2.1.1.1 Stitching single-surface bodies

            14.2.1.1.2 Dealing with non-analytic spline entities in CAD

          14.2.1.2 Cleanup model geometry (Optional)

          14.2.1.3 Modify BREP topology for quality meshing (Optional)

          14.2.1.4 Mesh model geometry

          14.2.1.5 Create subdomains for *SET_ keywords

          14.2.1.6 Partitioning for multiple LS-DYNA parts

          14.2.1.7 Constructing the U-spline

          14.2.1.8 Exporting U-splines for use in LS-DYNA

            14.2.1.8.1 Exporting multiple BEXT files

        14.2.2 Preparing LS-DYNA input

          14.2.2.1 Creating boundary conditions

          14.2.2.2 Creating rigid connections

          14.2.2.3 Creating common node connections

          14.2.2.4 Creating tied contact

          14.2.2.5 Including generated files

          14.2.2.6 Required file inclusion order for multiple BEXT files

        14.2.3 Executing ANSYS LS-DYNA

          14.2.3.1 Post-processing

      14.3 Initial set of ANSYS LS-DYNA keywords that support LS-DYNA BEXT input

        14.3.1 Preliminary comments

        14.3.2 ANSYS LS-DYNA supported keywords

    15 Appendix

      15.1 Alpha Commands

        15.1.1 Automatic Detail Suppression

        15.1.2 Automatic Geometry Decomposition

        15.1.3 Cohesive Elements

        15.1.4 Deleting Mesh Elements

        15.1.5 FeatureSize

        15.1.6 Geometry Tolerant Meshing

          15.1.6.9 Limitations

        15.1.7 Mesh Cutting

        15.1.8 Mesh Grafting

        15.1.9 Optimize Jacobian

        15.1.10 Randomize

        15.1.11 Refine Mesh Boundary

        15.1.12 Super Sizing Function

        15.1.13 Test Sizing Function

        15.1.14 Transition

        15.1.15 Triangle Mesh Coarsening

        15.1.16 Whisker Weave

      15.2 APREPRO

        15.2.1 APREPRO Additional Functionality

        15.2.2 APREPRO Functions

        15.2.3 APREPRO Journaling

        15.2.4 APREPRO Operators

        15.2.5 APREPRO Predefined Variables

        15.2.6 APREPRO Rules

        15.2.7 APREPRO Syntax

        15.2.8 APREPRO Units

      15.3 File Formats

        15.3.1 ???

        15.3.2 The Bézier extraction file format

          15.3.2.1 bezier_extraction_patch

          15.3.2.2 control_points

          15.3.2.3 elements

          15.3.2.4 element_blocks

          15.3.2.5 cell_sets

          15.3.2.6 extraction_coefficients

          15.3.2.7 dense_blocks

        15.3.3 The Bézier extraction file format

          15.3.3.1 Introduction

          15.3.3.2 ANSYS LS-DYNA keyword

          15.3.3.3 Geometry file formats

            15.3.3.3.1 ASCII format

            15.3.3.3.2 Binary format

        15.3.4 The Exodus Bézier extraction file format

          15.3.4.1 Control point information

          15.3.4.2 Element information

            15.3.4.2.1 Node numbering

          15.3.4.3 Coefficient vectors

            15.3.4.3.1 Examples

              15.3.4.3.1.1 Spline mesh with two elements

              15.3.4.3.1.2 Rational spline mesh with four elements

      15.4 Available Colors

      15.5 Element Numbering

      15.6 FASTQ

      15.7 FullHex vs. NodeHex Representation

      15.8 Navigation XML Files

      15.9 Periodic Space Filling Models (Tile)

      15.10 References

      15.11 Style Sheets in Cubit

    16 Known Issues

    17 Credits

      17.1 Additional Copyright Notices

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