Adding Beams to Model and Getting Mesh Vertices to Coincide

[bryan_mcnatt]

I have a 3D model that I've meshed with bicks & tets (thin layer).  It's a large weldment of relatively thin plates.  The weldment rests on beams and I'm trying to add such to my model using line elements.

I've successfully added the beams, their offsets and such.  What I can't get, however, is the remeshed 3D parts to place nodes coincident with the beam nodes.  See picture.  Blue dots are construction vertices that I generated at each end of the intermediate beam segments before remeshing.  I thought sure this would work.  In the picture, the light gray lines are of the 3D elements.  Without these nodes coinciding, my 3D model passes through my beams.

Any advice?

[AstroJohnPE · Accepted solution]

Try adding the construction vertices to BOTH sides of the plate.

I don't know exactly how the brick and tet (thin layer) mesher works, but it likely takes the surface mesh on one of the faces and extrudes it to the other side. I think it's likely that the thin layer mesher just happens to be using the surface mesh from the side opposite from where you placed the construction vertices, so the result is that it has "ignored" the construction vertices. By placing construction vertices on both sides of the plate, there will be nodes at the proper location regardless of which surface mesh is used for the extrusion.

[bryan_mcnatt]

Thanks John.  That did the trick!  For grins, I first tried simply putting the construction vertices on the other side of the plates.  That didn't work across all the plates.  You do have to do it on both sides if you have more than one plate body.  I realized that my first attempt was working for two of four of my plates.  Putting the construction vertices on the opposite sides of the plates then worked for the other two of the four.  Just thought I'd record all this here for posterity.

Thanks again!