Cut a tetrahedron mesh by a plane

MeshCut works only with MED files and produces MED files, and is a standalone program. It can be used either directly from a command shell outside SALOME, or with a GUI interface in SMESH, provided in a python plugin that needs to be installed in your SALOME application.

MeshCut allows to cut a mesh constituted of linear tetrahedrons by a plane. The tetrahedrons intersected by the plane are cut and replaced by elements of various types, (tetrahedron, pyramid, pentahedron).

Using MeshCut as a standalone program, outside SALOME

MeshCut is a standalone program, reading and producing med files.

Syntax:

MeshCut input.med output.med resuMeshName aboveGroup belowGroup nx ny nz px py pz T

where:

  • input.med = name of the original mesh file in med format

  • output.med = name of the result mesh file in med format

  • resuMeshName = name of the result mesh

  • aboveGroup = name of the group of volumes above the cut plane

  • belowGroups = name of the group of volumes below the cut plane

  • nx ny nz = vector normal to the cut plane

  • px py pz = a point of the cut plane

  • T = 0 < T < 1 : vertices of a tetrahedron are considered as belonging to the cut plane if their distance from the plane is inferior to L*T, where L is the mean edge size of the tetrahedron

Using MeshCut inside SALOME

When the MeshCut plugin is installed, it can be found in the Mesh menu, sub-menu SMESH_plugins. If the plugin is not installed, the file meshcut_plugin.py is in SMESH installation in subdirectory bin/salome/meshcut_plugin.py.

If there are already plugins defined in a smesh_plugins.py file, this file should be added at the end. If not, copied as ${HOME}/Plugins/smesh_plugins.py or ${APPLI}/Plugins/smesh_plugins.py or in ${PLUGINPATH} directory.

From the Mesh menu, sub-menu SMESH_plugins, choose “MeshCut” item The following dialog box will appear:

_images/meshcut_plugin.png

MeshCut Plugin dialog box

See above for the meaning of the parameters.