Sculpt GUI

Sculpt can be run from a terminal or a GUI. Sculpt parameters are divided into 4 areas: Size, Mesh, Smoothing, and Parallel.

Parameter Details

Cell Size. Manage the target edge size of the base Cartesian grid by selecting either Cell Size or Cartesian Intervals. Selecting Cell Size will result in three options:

Auto Size. Range is [nearly] 0 to 10. Move the slider and see the estimated Total Cells value change.
Cell Size. Input a specific target cell size.
Default. The algorithm will select a target cell size based on the model parameters.

Cartesian Intervals. This defines the number of intervals in the x, y, and z direction of the base Cartesian grid used for defining the volume fraction definition and meshing. The Total Cells value is updated as the x, y, and z values change.
Bounding Box. This defines the bounding box or range of the Cartesian grid used for meshing. Three options are available:

Expand Percent. Expand the bounding box by a constant percentage value.
Min/Max. Change the minimum and maximum extent of the bounding box in 3 directions.
Auto Cartesian. The algorithm will define the bounding box.
Auto Aligned. Orient the Cartesian grid with the main dimensions of the model.

Parameter Details

Define Sidesets. Selecting this will result in four options for defining sidesets:
Fixed. Exactly 3 sidesets will be generated.

Geometric Surfaces. If present in the STL file, one sideset will be generated for each surface designation.
Geometric Sidesets. Useful when Bolt has identified specific surfaces as sidesets.

Stair-step Mesh. No projection and smoothing of material interfaces will occur. Read details here.
Mesh Void. Select this to mesh the void of the bounding box as a separate material and indicate the ID of the block to use.
Adaptive Mesh Size. Select to include adaptive refinement.
Threshold Distance. Read details here.
Max Levels. Read details here.
Auto Pillowing. Select to add additional layers of hexes at surfaces to improve element quality near curve interfaces.
All Surfaces. Hexes with faces on surfaces will be pillowed
Local at Curves. Hexes with 3 or more nodes on a curve will be pillowed
Number of Layers. Indicate the number of pillow layers to add.
Smooth. Select to smooth following pillowing.
Hex Dominant. Generate tets in place of poor quality elements.
Threshold. Scaled Jacobian threshold value below which tets will be generated.

Parameter Details

Laplacian. Select for Laplacian smoothing.
Num Laplacian Iterations. Default value is 2 for Laplacian smoothing iterations.
Jacobi Optimization. Select for Jacobi Optimization smooth. If selected with Laplacian, a hybrid smoothing operation will be performed.
Max Jacobi Iterations. Default value is 5 for the maximum smoothing iterations.
Jacobi Opt Threshold. Default is 0.6 when deciding which elements will be smoothed. All cells with Scaled Jacobian value less than this threshold, plus those cells neighbors, will be smoothed.
Coloring Optimization. Select for spot smoothing of isolated nodes.
Max Coloring Iterations. Default is 100 for the maximum number of spot smoothing iterations.
Coloring Opt Threshold. Default is 0.2 for the Scaled Jacobian spot smoothing threshold.
Degenerate Hexes: Collapse Edges. If selected the algorithm will produce degenerate hexes by collapsing edges.
Max Collapse Iterations. Default is 10 to determine the maximum number of edge collapse iterations.
Collapse Threshold. Default is 0.2 for Scaled Jacobian threshold for collapsed edges. Nodes at hexes below this value are candidates for edge collapses.
Improve Hexes at Clipped Boundary. If selected, boundary buffer layer improvement is performed at surfaces intersecting the domain boundary. Otherwise, no boundary buffer improvement is performed.

Parameter Details

Number of Processors. The field defaults to 4. The algorithm is massively parallel and will use as many processors as specified and available.
Run Filename.
Exodus Filename.
Create Input File. This is used to create a file that can be fed into the stand-alone Sculpt executable.
Do not run Sculpt. Check this to create the input files only but do not launch Sculpt.
Overwrite Existing Files. This is on by default. All existing files with the same name will be overwritten.
Combine Parallel Files. This is on by default. The algorithm produces separate results files for each processor. This option will combine the separate files into one results file.
Import Exodus after Meshing. Import the completed exodus mesh upon completion of meshing.
Show Sculpt Output. This is on by default. Output from the mesher will be displayed in the Output Console window.
Clean Up Temporary Files. This is on by default. The algorithm creates a number of temporary files which will be deleted at the conclusion of the meshing process.