Create 3D mesh of a die
 

Hi guys, I need to create a 3d mesh starting from a 3d CAD file (I'm using solidworks).
What mesh software can I use for my goal?
Can you advice me some books to read about this matter?

I'm very new at CFD, I'm trying to simulate a very viscous fluid (like the plastiline) extruded through a die, do you think with CFD can I obtain some realistic results?

Anyway, my first question is relative to know how create my first 3d mesh starting from a cad.

Thanks

Hi,

I'm afraid I cannot help with the very viscous part, but regarding meshing you have several options.
1. if your geometry is complex, you probably want an unstructured mesher, like OF native snappyHexMesh, which requires an stl to represent the CAD model; you could also look at engrid which is free
2. if your geometry is simple you could try meshing it with a structured hexahedral grid using blockMesh, although that doesn't require a CAD model, rather a description of points. This is generally the most tricky way
3. use a commercial tool, like Pointwise, GridPro, Hexpress, etc. which should work with either a step or an iges. These are quite expensive to obtain so if you don't have access to a licence you probably don't want to go this way.

All the best,

A