Repair surface mesh by gmsh in OpenFlipper

Hi, I am looking for a way to repair a surface mesh generated by gmsh, and would like to know if this is possible. I explain my problem in some more depth: I am doing FEM simulations and need to generate meshes from CAD data which I get in STEP format. The geometries normally consist of several volumes which are in contact with each other, so they share common interfaces. In CAD, each volume has its own set of outer surfaces, so that there are duplicated interfaces between the volumes. For FEM, the mesh needs to be conformal at the interfaces, i.e. there needs to be only one surface with its nodes and triangles between the volumes. I am using gmsh (http://geuz.org/gmsh) to generate the mesh. The problem is that gmsh cannot repair those duplicated interfaces. So what I want to do is * generate a surface mesh with gmsh * export it, use a mesh manipulation program to repair the mesh at the duplicated interfaces * re-import the repaired mesh into gmsh and generate the 3D mesh. My question: Is this possible with OpenFlipper? I have installed OpenFlipper and tried to import a surface mesh from gmsh, but I did not find a format which gmsh writes that can be opened by OpenFlipper. gmsh writes msh (its own format), inp, unv, wrl, and some more. It is important that the surfaces structure (i.e. there are several surfaces, not just one) is kept during the process, so stl is not an option as far as I understand. Which mesh formats (except OpenMesh) can be read by OpenFlipper? Or is there a way to convert a mesh from gmsh to OpenMesh format? If it is not possible with OpenFlipper, do you know another software I could use for this purpose? Thank you for some hints, Matthias _____________________________________________________________________ ERBE Elektromedizin GmbH Firmensitz: 72072 Tuebingen Geschaeftsfuehrer: Christian O. Erbe, Reiner Thede Registergericht: Stuttgart HRB 380137

On 08.01.2013 16:34, Zenker, Dr. Matthias wrote:
Hi, I am looking for a way to repair a surface mesh generated by gmsh, and would like to know if this is possible. I explain my problem in some more depth: I am doing FEM simulations and need to generate meshes from CAD data which I get in STEP format. The geometries normally consist of several volumes which are in contact with each other, so they share common interfaces. In CAD, each volume has its own set of outer surfaces, so that there are duplicated interfaces between the volumes. For FEM, the mesh needs to be conformal at the interfaces, i.e. there needs to be only one surface with its nodes and triangles between the volumes. I am using gmsh (_http://geuz.org/gmsh_) to generate the mesh. The problem is that gmsh cannot repair those duplicated interfaces. So what I want to do is
* generate a surface mesh with gmsh * export it, use a mesh manipulation program to repair the mesh at the duplicated interfaces * re-import the repaired mesh into gmsh and generate the 3D mesh.
My question: Is this possible with OpenFlipper? I have installed OpenFlipper and tried to import a surface mesh from gmsh, but I did not find a format which gmsh writes that can be opened by OpenFlipper. gmsh writes msh (its own format), inp, unv, wrl, and some more. It is important that the surfaces structure (i.e. there are several surfaces, not just one) is kept during the process, so stl is not an option as far as I understand. Which mesh formats (except OpenMesh) can be read by OpenFlipper? Or is there a way to convert a mesh from gmsh to OpenMesh format? If it is not possible with OpenFlipper, do you know another software I could use for this purpose? Thank you for some hints, Matthias
Hi, OpenFlipper also supports VTK (beside the OpenMesh formats), but the implementation is not complete yet. What you mean by keeping the surface structure? The topology of one mesh or the order of the triangles? If i get it right you need to repair multiple touching surfaces and that you need to repair both in the same way, which is currently not implemented. Best, Jan Möbius -- Dipl.Inform. Jan Möbius Department of Computer Science VIII Aachen University of Technology (RWTH) Ahornstrasse 55, 52074 Aachen, Germany Phone ++49 (0)241 80-21817 Fax ++49 (0)241 80-22899 mailto:moebius@cs.rwth-aachen.de http://www.rwth-graphics.de
participants (2)
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Jan Möbius
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Zenker, Dr. Matthias