I've asked this on the CFX forums at ANSYS, but I'll ask here.

I usually use ICEM to do my meshing. Recently, we picked up version 11 with workbench and I started playing around with the CFX-Mesh that workbench uses. It does a usual mesh (tetras and prisms). Not counting the mesh editing that ICEM contains, how does CFX-Mesh compare with ICEM? I'd like to use it since it looks "slicker" than ICEM and there's no fussy import this and that to go through. Any opinions?

-W

Hi!

I started with cfx-10 & tried both cfx mesh and icem. Previously my opinion was that meshing with ICEM is quiet tedious,but after practising some time I find to many options to do in icem.

U can have body points,orfn,can know cordinates of mesh,mesh quality,then bad quality elements and can perticularly handle them.These facilities i couldnt find in cfx-mesh.

They might be there.But i m preferring icem over it.

When your geometry is simple, a closed solid, without small surfaces etc, CFX-mesh is superb. It is easy to learn and the mesh quality is better in general.

When your geometry is complex, has a lot of holes and a lot of small surfaces, fillets etc, etc, use ICEM, although ICEM is harder to learn. It has too much options.

You can 'repair' the small objects in CFX-mesh using virtual geometry. But this can be a quite tedious job. ICEM doesn't see these objects. It is more automatic.

Gert-Jan

www.bunova.nl

Hi,

In short - CFX-Mesh is an easy to use mesher which works for simple to moderately complex meshes. ICEM is a much more complex mesher which requires greater training and experience to use effectively, but it ideal for generating moderate to complex meshes.

The gap between the two is narrowing and many of the geometries I used to use ICEM to mesh as it was the only option can now be meshed in CFX-Mesh. There are still a few geometries I use which CFX-Mesh cannot handle so I use ICEM for these.

Glenn Horrocks

Thanks guys.

I can use ICEM pretty well, but I frequently get caught up in the editing features, trying to smooth/refine/fix/create a mesh CFX will go through with little problem. I have small geometries (1/16") that are quirky at best. CFX-Mesh seems to be able to handle them (tetra/prisms) so I wanted to see what other people prefer in meshers.

thanks! W

Just to throw another in there I still use GAMBIT! and lov eit

Hi,

I must admit that when I just want to do a simple hex mesh I still do that in Patran. CFX-Mesh and ICEM are not very good at quickly generating a quality structured mesh. If I had hexa that would probably be OK but I have Patran instead so I use that.

Glenn

I wish I had the array of meshers that you guys seem to have. Oh well, budget and all that sort of thing. Anyway, I like ICEM a little better than CFX-Mesh since there seems to be more robustness to it. I like to check/smooth my meshes and I haven't quite figured out how to do that stuff in CFX-Mesh (if it is even possible). The only use right now for CFX-Mesh is the ability to do design studies which are very useful and save me a bit of time. The boss man looks at my work "This must have taken you days!" "OH er...quite, yes. Slaved away at it all week, don't you know."

-W