Data Transfer Mesh Mapping

To transfer data across a dissimilar mesh interface, the nodes of one mesh must be mapped to the local
coordinates of a node/element in the other mesh. This section
describes the settings that are available in
Mechanical when data is mapped across two different meshes.

You can add the exported mesh and loads as external data in the project schematic and couple a new
Mechanical analysis system with this external data. The Mapping
Settings described below are available within
Mechanical for Thermal-Stress coupling with dissimilar mesh, Submodeling, when temperatures or
displacements are transferred from Mechanical to Ansoft, or when the source data comes from an External
Data system.

Mapping Settings

The Settings category provides the following properties.

Mapping Control
By default, when Program Controlled is selected, the software will determine the appropriate algorithm
and settings based on the source and
target mesh data, as well as the data type being transferred. See
Program Controlled Mapping topic below for additional
information. You may choose to modify the
advanced features by setting this to Manual.

Mapping
This read-only property displays the mapping algorithms the application selects. Options include:
Profile Preserving: Using this mapping option, the application simply takes the profile of the variable
(for example, temperature) on
one mesh, and matches or maps it to the other mesh as best as it can.
Conservative: Using this mapping option, the application makes sure that the profile is interpolated in
such a way as to ensure that
a total quantity passing across the interface is conserved, that is the same
total passes out of one mesh and into the other. For example, a conservative
interpolation of force
ensures that the total force on one side of the boundary exactly matches the total force received by the
other side of the boundary, even if
the mesh resolution is poor. Conservative interpolation does not
make sense for a variable such as temperature where there is no corresponding physical quantity to
conserve.

Note:  Conservative algorithms are only available for Imported Force loads. Conservative
algorithms are not available for 2D to 3D data transfers. If conservative
algorithms are not
available, it is a read-only field displaying that a "Profile Preserving" algorithm is being used.

Weighting
Choose which type of weighting should be performed. This option can be changed only if Mapping Control
is set to Manual.
Direct Assignment applies the source value directly on the nodes/elements identified by Node
IDs/Element IDs in the External Data
specification.

Note:  This mapping only supports loads applied to nodes or elements. The following loads
applied to element faces are not supported:
Pressure (on element faces)
Convection Coefficient
Heat Flux

Triangulation creates temporary elements from the n closest source nodes to find the closest points
that will
contribute portions of their data values. For 3D, 4-node tetrahedrons are created, and for 2D,
3-node triangles are created by iterating over all possible
combinations of the source points (maximum
number controlled by the Limit property), starting with the closest points. If the target point is
found
within the element, weights are calculated based on the target’s location inside the element.
Distance Based Average uses the distance from the target node to the specified number of closest
source node(s) to calculate a weighting
value.
Quaternion (Imported Element Orientations only) performs the interpolation in the quaternion space
rather than
directly on the Euler angles. Weighting values are calculated as in the Distance Based
Average case. All options available for the
Distance Based Average also apply to this Weighting type.
This is the preferred approach for mapping orientations because:

Several Euler angles parametrize the same orientation. Interpolating in the quaternion space
enables the application to account for equivalence. See Figure
34.

Quaternion interpolation provides the shortest path between two orientations as compared to
interpolating the Euler angles directly, which can lead to
counter-intuitive results. See Figure 35.

Figure 49: Interpolating Between Different (but equivalent) Euler Angles

Consider interpolating between same orientations A and B expressed with different (but equivalent)
Euler angles (left). Euler angles interpolation (center)
leads to counter-intuitive results. The
quaternion interpolation (right) delivers the expected results (constant orientations over the part).

Figure 50: Quaternion versus Euler Angle Interpolation

 Consider interpolating between the orientations A and B shown on the left. Quaternion
interpolation (right) provides the shortest path between the two
orientations, while Euler angles
interpolation (center) takes the longest one.

Weighting:
Shape Function: Two mapping methods are available for a load transfer: “Profile Preserving” and
“Conservative”.
In a Profile Preserving mapping, each node on the target (receiver) side maps onto an element on
the source (sender) side
(α1). The transfer variable is then interpolated at
α1. The transfer value is T1
= φ (α1). Thus, all nodes on the target side query the source side.
Figure 51: Profile Preserving Mapping

In a conservative mapping, each node X on the source (sender) maps onto an element on the target
(receiver) side. Thus, the transfer variable on the source
is split into two quantities that are added to
the target nodes. As shown in the following figure, the force at node 4 splits into forces at nodes 3’
and
4’.
Figure 52: Conservative Mapping

Thus profile preserving (conservative) version of Shape Function algorithm loops over the target
(source) nodes and tries to locate a
source (target) element that each target (source) node can be
mapped to. Weights for each of the source nodes are then assigned based on the location of the
target (source) node and the shape function of the element. For each target (source) node, the
search efficiency can be improved by restricting the search to a
subset of the source (target)
elements. The search algorithm works by:
Distributing all source (target) elements into Cartesian boxes or buckets. The number of buckets
is controlled by the Scale
property.
Locating each of the target nodes in a box
Finding an element that each target (source) node can be mapped to by restricting the search
with each target’s (source’s) box

Note:
When there is a significant distance between target (source) node and the closest
element, e.g. Shell-Solid submodeling, the node and the element may
not be found in
the same box. In order to improve mapping accuracy in such cases, the Pinball control
may be used. See
Pinball in the Advanced section for more details.
For conservative mapping, the value on a source node is distributed only on the nodes
of the target element it is mapped to. Therefore, it is
possible, especially if you are
mapping from coarse to fine meshes, that some of the mapped target nodes get a zero
value. This is because none of the
adjacent elements are mapped to one or more
source nodes.
For the Linux Platform, this mesh mapping option is limited to the use of only one
processor core.

Kriging is a regression-based interpolation technique that assigns weights to surrounding source

points according to their spatial
covariance values. The algorithm combines the kriging model with a
polynomial model to capture local and global deviations. The kriging model interpolates the
source
points based on their localized deviations, while the polynomial model globally approximates the
source space. See Kriging in the DesignXplorer User's Guide for more information.

Note:  By default, the Kriging technique uses an adaptive algorithm and ensures that the
interpolated values do not exceed specific limits. The adaptive
algorithm starts by using
the higher-order Cross Quadratic polynomial to interpolate data. If the interpolated value
of each target point
is outside the extrapolation limit you specified, the algorithm re-
interpolates data by reducing the polynomial order and the number of source points.
Target
nodes whose values are outside the limits when the lowest polynomial type is
used are not assigned a value.
The Kriging algorithm, when used with the higher-order Cross Quadratic or Pure
Quadratic polynomial, may fail to
correctly interpolate data for a target point if multiple
source points are spaced close to one another or if the target point is outside the region
enclosed
by the source points that are selected for interpolation. This may introduce
gross errors in the estimation of the target value and manifests itself mostly
when
 mapping data on surface or edge geometries. In such cases, you should change the
Polynomial Type to Constant or
Linear and, if necessary, reduce the number of source
points to be included for the interpolation.

UV Mapping can be used to transfer data from one surface to another. Unlike other algorithms, UV
mapping does not require the surfaces
to be coincident. This allows for mapping between deformed
and un-deformed geometries, as well as transfers between dissimilar geometry. Element data is
required from both the source and the target mesh. If the source is an Mechanical APDL .cdb file
containing volumetric element data, a nodal
component must also be specified which will be used to
define the surface from which the data transfer will occur.
Polyhedral Surface Creation and Conversion to UV
To map a mesh in UV space, the application first creates polyhedral surfaces from the given mesh
data. If the source mesh is volumetric data, an associated
node-based component must be selected
such that the nodes consist of the surface area where the mapping takes place. Once the application
creates the source and
target surfaces, they are then ‘unfolded’ and converted into UV coordinates.
The application defines the UV space as a parametric space where the
axis data equals 0.0 to 1.0.
Alignment points anchor the node locations to the corners of the 1x1 box.
Interpolation
Once the source and target data is converted to UV space, the target nodal UV locations are used to
locate the source element that would contain the target
node. The value for the target is then
calculated based on the values provided from the source elements nodes.

Note:  Available weighting options depend upon the data available from source and target
and on the Mapping setting. Some of the weighting
options may not be available for certain
mesh data or Mapping settings. For example, when Mapping is set to Profile Preserving,
Shape Function and UV are only available when the source provides element
information.
For Conservative Mapping, only Shape Function for Weighting and Surface for Transfer Type
is
available.

Interpolation
Interpolation (Imported Trace only): This property species how the application calculates
effective
conductivity on a per element basis when you are performing an analysis that involves trace mapping of a
circuit board. Options include
Nondirectional (default) and Directional. The Nondirectional option
calculates
effective conductivity by averaging the trace data in each element. Using the Directional option,
the application calculates the effective
orthotropic conductivity for each element using the position and
values of the trace data within each element.

Transfer Type
Enables you to choose the dimension of the transfer (for 3D profile preserving transfers only). This option
is available only for
Triangulation, Shape Function, and for adaptive Kriging. For best results, use the
Surface option when mapping data across surfaces and the Volumetric option when mapping data across
volumes.
 When used with Triangulation:
The Surface option tries to map each target point by searching triangles that are created from the set of
closest source points. The target
point will be projected onto the plane relative to the triangle surface.
If the point is found inside the triangle, the weights are calculated based on the
target’s projected
location inside the triangle.
The Volumetric option tries to map each target point by searching tetrahedrons that are created from
the set of closest source points.

When used with the Shape Function:

The Surface option uses the bucket surface search algorithm to locate a source element that each
target node can be mapped to. This option
supports only triangle and quadrilateral source elements; do
not use it if your source elements are other shapes because the algorithm does not account for these
shapes.
The Volumetric option uses the bucket volume search algorithm to locate a source element that each
target node can be mapped to. This
option supports triangle, quadrilateral, tetrahedron, hexahedron,
and wedge source elements.

When used with adaptive Kriging, the Surface option uses fewer surrounding source points to interpolate
data than the
Volumetric option does.

2D Projection
Available only for 2D to 3D data transfers from an External Data system connected to Mechanical. The
default option is Normal To Plane. You will
be able to choose between the default as well as all application
and user input coordinate systems.

Rigid Transformation

The properties of the Rigid Transformation category enable you to apply coordinate system transformations to
the source points
using the options of the Mesh Alignment property listed below.

Important:

For source data imported from an upstream External Data system, any transformation in
Mechanical is added onto the Rigid Transformation performed
in upstream External Data system.

Rigid Transformations are not supported when the Weighting property is set to Direct
Assignment.

The Mesh Alignment property includes two options:

Use Origin and Euler Angles

 You change the source point coordinate locations by specifying distance and rotational degree entries in
the Origin and Theta properties. For example, an entry of
0.1 meters in the Origin X property would offset
the X location of all the source points by 0.1 meters. In addition, it is important to note that rotational
changes are
made first and in the following order:
1. Theta ZX
2. Theta YZ
3. Theta XY

Once complete, translational changes are made.

Use Coordinate Systems

When you select this option, the Source Coordinate System and the Target Coordinate System properties
display. Each
property provides a drop-down list of available coordinate systems to select from. Based on
your selections, the transformations are calculated so that the
Source Coordinate System automatically
aligns with the Target Coordinate System. The transformations are automatically
calculated such that the
Source Coordinate System is aligned with the Target Coordinate System after the transformation. For
example, when the source mesh is defined in the XY plane, whereas the target geometry is defined in a
plane obtained by applying the Euler rotations RXY, RYZ and RZX to
the XY plane. Then choosing Global
Coordinate System as Source Coordinate System and the coordinate system created by applying the
transformations RXY, RYZ and RZX to
the Global Coordinate System as the Target Coordinate Systems, the
source mesh is transformed such that it is aligned with the target geometry. This option is useful if
the
source points are defined with respect to a coordinate system that is not aligned with the target geometry
system.

Note:  When your upstream system is an External Data system, the default option for both
properties is External Data Coordinate
System. This internal coordinate system is not visible in
the Outline. It represents the coordinate system that transformed the source points in the
External Data system. If there are no Rigid Transformations defined in the upstream External
Data system, the
External Data Coordinate System is the same as the Global Coordinate
System.

Note:  For an Imported Load or Imported Thickness object, set the Display Source Points property
to
On to display the alignment of the source and target points.

Graphics Controls

The Graphics Controls category provides the following properties.

Display Source Points: Toggle display of source point data. This can be helpful in visualizing where the
source point data is in reference to
the target mesh.
 Display Source Point Ids: Toggle display of source point identifiers. This can be helpful in conjunction with
validation objects when trying to
identify nodes with undefined values. Note that if a column is not defined
with the Node ID Data Type, the source point ids will correspond to the
row from which they come in the
file. For formatted and delimited files, ids will start after skipped lines.

Display Interior Points: Available when Display Source Points or Display Source Point Ids is set to
On. Toggle
allowing source point data to be displayed through the model so that interior points can be seen.

Display Projection Plane: Toggle display of project plane (available only for 2D to 3D mapping).

Legend Controls

The Legend Controls category provides the following properties.

Legend Range: Program Controlled (default) or Manual control of the legend minimum and maximum
values.
When Program Controlled is selected, the target data's minimum and maximum values will be used
in the legend. When Manual is
selected, control of the Maximum and Minimum values can input and the
graphics will be drawn based on these values.

Minimum: When Legend Range is set to Manual, this option is available for inputting the minimum legend
value.

Maximum: When Legend Range is set to Manual, this option is available for inputting the maximum legend
value.

Source Minimum: Read only field providing the source data minimum value.

Source Maximum: Read only field providing the source data maximum value.

Named Selection Creation

The Named Selections category provides the following properties.

Unmapped Nodes: Activating this property creates a named selection containing all of the points that
cannot be mapped. The default setting is
Off.

In addition, when you activate this property, an associated Name property displays. This property displays
the name of the Named Selection. You
can edit this field. By default, the application assigns name
"Unmapped Nodes."

Mapped Nodes: Activating this property creates a named selection that contains all mapped points. The
default setting is
Off.
 In addition, when you activate this property, an associated Name property displays. This property displays
the name of the Named Selection. You
can edit this field. By default, the application assigns name "Mapped
Nodes."

Outside Nodes: Activating this property create a named selection containing all the points that cannot be
found within tetrahedrons/triangles
when Triangulation is used. The default setting is Off.

In addition, when you activate this property, an associated Name property displays. This property displays
the name of the Named Selection. You
can edit this field. By default, the application assigns name "Outside
Nodes."

These settings are only available for profile preserving mapping.

Advanced

The application filters the properties of the Advanced category based on the settings made in the Mapping
Control and Weighting properties in the Mapping Settings category. Properties include:

Pinball: The Pinball property enables you to specify a region of interest around a target point. Only the
source
points/elements inside the pinball region are considered for mapping and any point/element outside
of the pinball will not be used. Specific behavior of the
Pinball control is dependent on the Weighting type
selected as discussed below:

When used with Triangulation or Distance Based Average, a bounding box is created around the target
point based on the value of
the pinball to find the closest source points. Any point outside of the
bounding box will not be used. By default, the Program Controlled value
is 0.0, which calculates the
distance based on .05% of the source region's bounding box size. The bounding box will automatically
resize if the mapping is unable to
find the minimum number of points required to calculate weighting
factors. (Note that resizing occurs only for Program Controlled.)

Note:   In certain cases when Pinball is set to Program Controlled, the process of searching for
source nodes around a target
node can take a long time. In the image below, the target nodes are
located on the red face. The target nodes (A) closest to the vertical body will quickly find nodes
in
the +Y axis direction. Target nodes (B) further down the X axis will take longer to find.
As an example, consider the case shown in the image below. The two red dots indicate target
nodes in regions A and B. For each target node, the triangulation
algorithm will begin its search
for source nodes within the perimeter of a psuedo cube (bounding box) centered at its location.
For the first pass, the edge length of
the cube is set to be 0.05% of the maximum bounding box
length of the source region. The algorithm looks to find ‘n’ source points (set by the limits
property) in the positive and negative X, Y, and Z axes of the cube. If ‘n’ source points cannot be
found in any of the six directions (±X, ±Y, and ±Z), the size of the search region is doubled and the
process repeated. The search process continues until the required number
of source points are
found in all directions or until the search region extends beyond the limits of the source bounding
box.

During the first pass, for the target node in region A, the algorithm is able to find the required
number of source nodes. However, for the target node in region B,
sufficient nodes cannot be
found in the +Y direction and the size of the search area is increased. As illustrated in the figure
below, for the target node in region B,
the algorithm runs through several iterations before it is
able to find the required number of source nodes. This results in an increase in time as well as the
possible
inclusion of source nodes that are significantly further away from the target node.
 Please note that for each target node the pinball is reset to its initial size (0.05% of the maximum
bounding box length) before the search begins.

For such cases it is recommended that you specify a pinball value so that the search box can be
controlled to only find nodes within a certain region. This allows
for triangulation to quickly
search for source nodes, as well as to ignore source nodes that are sufficiently far away from the
target node.

When used with Shape Function, the Pinball control can be used to:
 Exclude from mapping to elements far away from the target point. When Transfer Type is Surface, the
target point is
projected onto the source elements to find the matching element. Due to projection,
the gap (the distance between target point and its projection on the matching
element) between the
target point and the matching element may be large. Such elements are excluded from mapping if the
gap is larger than the Pinball
Value specified.

Expand the search region to find matching elements. Shape function algorithm works by distributing
the source elements into regions called buckets, and then
for each target point, finding the
appropriate bucket and searching for the matching element in the bucket. When there is a significant
distance between a target
node and the closest element, e.g. Shell-Solid submodeling, the node and
the element may not be found in the same bucket. In order to improve mapping accuracy in
such
cases, the Pinball control may be used to include additional buckets for mapping. When a Pinball
Value greater that
0 is specified, then a bounding region is created around the target node using the
Pinball Value and all the buckets associated with the
region are used to find the appropriate element.
To improve the mapping efficiency, the search is restricted only to the elements within the bounding
region.

α3 is excluded when pinball (p) < gap (g), and included when pinball (p)
≥gap (g).

The Pinball option is not available when Weighting is set to Kriging.

Limit: Number of nearby points considered for interpolation. Defaults to 20. Lower values will reduce
processing time, however, some distorted
or irregular meshes will require a higher Limit value to
successfully encounter nodes for triangulation.

When Weighting is set to Kriging, the minimum value that can be used is based on the selected
Polynomial
type.

Weighting Minimum Maximum Limit

Limit

Triangulation 5 20

Kriging (Constant) 3 (3D), 2 Number of source

(2D) points
Weighting Minimum Maximum Limit
Limit

Kriging (Linear) 4 (3D), 3 Number of source

(2D) points

Kriging (Pure 7 (3D), 5 Number of source

Quadratic) (2D) points

Kriging (Cross 10 (3D), 6 Number of source

Quadratic) (2D) points

Outside Option: Enables you to ignore or choose a different weighting algorithm for target points that
cannot be found within the source
mesh/points. Different options are available, based on the Weighting
option chosen:

When used with Triangulation. For target points that cannot be found within tetrahedrons/triangles
created for
Triangulation.

Distance Based Average: The mapping will use a weighted average based on distances to the closest
Number of Points.
Distance Based Average is the default option.

Ignore: Target points will be ignored and no value will be applied.

Projection: Triangles will be created from the closest Number of Points and the target point will be
projected onto
the plane relative to the triangle surface. If the point is found inside the triangle, the
weights are calculated based on the target’s projected location
inside the triangle. This option is
available only for 3D transfers when the Transfer Type is set to Volumetric.

When used with Shape Function. For target points that cannot be found within source elements.

Nearest Node: The mapping will use the data from the nearest source node.

Ignore: Target points will be ignored and no value will be applied.

Note:

For the Conservative Shape Function algorithm, the source mesh is mapped onto the target
mesh (as opposed to profile preserving version,
which maps target mesh onto source), and
outside options control the contribution from source nodes which fall outside the target mesh.

Nearest Node is the default option for the Profile Preserving Shape Function algorithm, while
the
Ignore option is the default for the conservative algorithm.
Number of Points: When Weighting is set to Distance Based Average, or when Outside
Option is set to
Distance Based Average or Projection, this option is available to specify how many closest source
points
should be used when calculating weights. Valid range is from 1 to 8 for Distance Based Average and 3 to 20
for
Projection. Defaults to 3.

Outside Distance Checking: When Weighting is set to Triangulation and Outside

Option is set to Distance
Based Average or Projection, this option enables you to specify a Maximum
Distance cutoff beyond which
source points will be ignored. Defaults to Off. The maximum number of source points is limited to the value
specified by the Number of Points setting.

If the Outside Option is set to Distance Based Average, only source points that lie on or within a sphere
(centered at
the targets location and radius defined by the Maximum Distance value) will provide
contributions.

If the Outside Option is set to Projection, the algorithm only uses triangles with centroids that lie on or
inside a
sphere (centered at the targets location and radius defined by the Maximum Distance value).

In Figure 53: Outside Nodes (Pink) with Mesh Overlay, all the pink nodes on the surface are found “Outside”
the source points and will use the Outside Distance
Checking based on the Maximum Distance specified.

Figure 53: Outside Nodes (Pink) with Mesh Overlay

In Figure 54: Maximum Distance set to 0.005 (m), the circle is at the mouse location with radius set to 0.005
(m). Nodes within this radius will be mapped. The source nodes are
drawn as black dots and come from an
extremely coarse mesh.

Figure 54: Maximum Distance set to 0.005 (m)

In Figure 55: Mapped Nodes, the “Outside” nodes get mapped because they are located within the
Maximum Distance.

Figure 55: Mapped Nodes

The result of the import is shown in Figure 56: Imported Data using Maximum Distance for Outside Nodes.
Transparent areas show target nodes that do not get mapped because there are no
source nodes within the
Maximum Distance.

Figure 56: Imported Data using Maximum Distance for Outside Nodes
When Weighting is set to Kriging, this option allows you to ignore target points that lie outside the source
bounding box.
Defaults to Off. When this option is set to On, the Bounding Box Tolerance property enables
you to include
target points that lie outside the source bounding box by specifying a tolerance value. The
algorithm adds this tolerance value to the source bounding box when it checks
to see if a target point should
be ignored or not.

Scale: When weighting is set to Shape Function, the scaling factor (%) determines the number of buckets
used to distribute
the source elements. Defaults to 50% (2 buckets).

Edge Tolerance: Dimensionless mapping tolerance (default = 0.05).

Shape Function for Surface/Edge topology.

Correlation Function: When weighting is set to Kriging, this property enables you to change the
mathematical function that
is used to model the spatial correlation between the sample points. Defaults to
Gaussian.

Polynomial: When weighting is set to Kriging, this property enables you to change the mathematical
function that is used to
globally approximate the sample. Defaults to Adaptive.

Extrapolation Tolerance: You can use this option with adaptive Kriging to ensure that the
interpolated value
for each target point lies within specific limits. The tolerance is applied to the source range (based on the
source points used for each target point)
to determine if the interpolated value is satisfactory or if the data
needs to be re-interpolated by reducing the polynomial order and the number of source points. For
example, consider a target point having source values between 99 and 100. The default tolerance value of
10% will ensure that the mapped value is between 98.9 and 100.1.
Target points whose values are outside
the limits when the lowest polynomial type is used are not assigned a value.

Orientation Realignment: This option is available when the Weighting property is set to
Quaternion. When
selected, the interpolation calculation treats orientations that have been flipped as equivalent. That is, given
an element
orientation identified by the axes (X,Y,Z), the algorithm treats as equivalent the orientations
 (X,Y,Z), (-X, -Y, Z), (X, -Y, -Z), and (-X, Y, -Z). See Figure 45.

Figure 57: Interpolating Flipped Orientations

Consider interpolating between the orientations A and B shown on the left. Note that A can be obtained by
flipping the Z axis in the reference coordinate system.
Mapped orientations obtained with and without
Orientation Realignment are shown in the center and right, respectively.

Advanced Shell-Solid

Advanced shell-solid settings are filtered based on the Mapping Control and Weighting type selected in
Mapping Settings. They are only available for Shell-Solid submodeling. In the case of imported cut boundary
conditions, Shape
Function is the only available Weighting type.

Pinball Factor: This value is used to calculate the Pinball Value for shell-solid submodeling. The Pinball
Value is
calculated by scaling the maximum shell thickness with the Pinball Factor.

Figure 58: Shell-Solid Submodeling with Pinball Factor = 1.0

Figure 59: Shell-Solid Submodeling with Pinball Factor = 1.2

As shown in Figure 58: Shell-Solid Submodeling with Pinball Factor = 1.0 and Figure 59: Shell-Solid Submodeling
with Pinball Factor = 1.2, the gap between the nodes in the filleted region is greater than the
maximum shell
thickness for the model. Hence using a Pinball Factor equal to 1 results in nodes in the fillet not finding
appropriate matching
elements.(1) When Pinball Factor of 1.2 is used, then additional buckets are included in
the search resulting in better mapping results.(2)

Note:   Increasing the Pinball Factor increases the number of buckets searched to find the matching
element hence, may decrease the efficiency of the
mapping. An appropriate value should be chosen
so that the resulting bounding region includes the matching element but not too big so as to
negatively affect the efficiency
of the search.

Shell Thickness Factor: For shell models with variable thickness, the gap between the target node,
and matching element may be large.
Shell Thickness Factor is used to exclude any matching element
which has a gap greater than Thickness* Shell Thickness Factor.
Thickness is the average element
thickness of the matching element.

Figure 60: Shell-Solid Submodeling with Shell Thickness Factor = 0.6

Figure 61: Shell-Solid Submodeling with Shell Thickness Factor = 1.2

Note:  Increasing the Shell Thickness Factor to allow submodel nodes to be “found” can produce
poor submodel results as shown in Figure 60: Shell-Solid Submodeling with Shell Thickness Factor =
0.6 and Figure 61: Shell-Solid Submodeling with Shell Thickness Factor = 1.2. where large Shell
Thickness Factor causes the target nodes on the web region to be
matched with the base (3),
whereas the target nodes are more appropriately matched for a smaller Shell Thickness Factor (4).

UV Source Controls/UV Target Controls

Alignment: Program Controlled (default) or Manual control of selecting the four alignment points needed
for UV Mapping. The
process of UV mapping involves aligning both the source and target nodal data from
XYZ coordinates into the equivalent UV space. To do this, the mapper needs to have
access to four alignment
locations as reference points for unfolding and flattening the nodal information. These four locations are
 referred to as “Front
Bottom”, “Rear Bottom”, “Rear Top”, and “Front Top”. When the Program Controlled
alignment option is
selected, the associated coordinate systems ZX plane is used in relation to the associated
mesh nodal locations.

Coordinate System: Available when Alignment is set to Program Controlled.

One of the available
coordinate systems must be selected as a reference point for Program Controlled alignment. The mesh
nodal data
is transformed related to the ZX plane of the selected coordinate system. A mean Z value is
determined so that the nodes can be split into 2 groups, an upper and
lower section. The nodes in each
section are then sorted based on their X position. If there are nodes at the same X position, these points
are then sorted based on
their Z location. For the “Rear Bottom” and “Front Bottom” points, the
minimum sorted Z point will be used, and for the “Rear
Top” and “Front Top”, the maximum Z point will
be used.

Nodes: Available when Alignment is set to Manual for UV Source Controls.

The user must list the 4 node
locations in the text entry separated by commas. The order must be input as Front Bottom, Rear Bottom,
Rear Top, Front Top.

Target Front-Bottom, Target Rear-Bottom, Target Front-Top, Target Front-Top:

Available when Alignment
is set to Manual for UV Target Controls. The user must select geometric
vertices for each alignment point.

Program Controlled Mapping

Refer to the following table for the appropriate settings for when you set the Mapping Control property to
Program
Controlled in order to determine which type of mapping algorithm to use. The application determines
default settings based on the properties described
above.

When Mapping is Profile Preserving:

Source mesh can provide: Target mesh can provide: Weighting that will be used:

Node IDs Only Nodes Uses Direct Assignment to assign values

to target nodes.

Element IDs Only Elements Uses Direct Assignment to assign values

to target elements.
Source mesh can provide: Target mesh can provide: Weighting that will be used:

Nodes Only Nodes Only Uses Triangulation to calculate mapping

data.

Nodes and Elements Nodes Only Uses Shape Function to calculate

mapping data.

When Mapping is Conservative

Source mesh can provide: Target mesh can provide: Weighting that will be used:

Nodes Only Nodes and Elements Uses Shape Function to calculate

mapping data.

Manual Mapping

When manual mode is selected, you will be able to control advanced settings for the mapper. Based on the
mapping chosen (conservative or profile preserving) and mesh data
provided from the source and target, you
will be able to choose the type of weighting algorithm.

For Profile Preserving Mapping:

If the source mesh contains only points, you will be able to select from the following:

Direct Assignment (requires source Node or Element IDs)

Triangulation

Distance Based Average

Kriging

If the source mesh also contains element data, you will have the items listed above as well as:

Shape Function

For Conservative Mapping:

If the source mesh contains only points, you will be able to select from the following:

Shape Function

Element shapes supported during mapping when Shape Function is selected:

 Element Shape Supported

3 Node Triangle X (2D)

(3D)

6 Node Triangle X (2D)

(3D)

4 Node Quadrilateral X (2D)

(3D)

8 Node Quadrilateral X (2D)

(3D)

4 Node Tetrahedron X (3D)

10 Node Tetrahedron X (3D)

8 Node Hexahedron X (3D)

20 Node Hexahedron X (3D)

6 Node Wedge X (3D)

15 Node Wedge X (3D)

2D to 3D Mapping

Mapping point data from 2D to 3D analyses is possible using the External Data system connected to a
downstream Mechanical system. This mapping is performed by collapsing
the 3D mesh data into a 2D plane and
calculating target point weighting factors from the source point data.

2D results in the XY Plane:

You will be able to select the 2D project plane to use based on the available coordinate systems as well as an
option to select normal to the 2D source point data
(Normal To Plane). Using the Graphics Controls described
above, you will be able to turn on and off visualization of the source
point data and the 2D projection plane.

Source point and 2D projection plane displayed:

When selecting Cartesian coordinate systems, the projection will be done on the XY Plane. If the coordinate
system is cylindrical, the projection will be rotated about
the Z axis into the ZX Plane. Normal To Plane will
project the target points into the source point plane.

3D mapped data using cylindrical coordinate system projection:

3D mapped data using Normal To Plane:

 Note:  Conservative mapping is not available for 2D to 3D transfers.

Notes

When mapping point cloud data, the mapping utility does not know where body boundaries are. If you have a
model with contact between two bodies, the mapping may pick up
points from both bodies causing undesired
results.

Contains proprietary and confidential information of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.

Release 2022 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved.