Trouble Meshing Imported SolidWorks Part in Abaqus – Need Help with Hex or Hex-Dominated Mesh

kadalpanas88 · Jun 23, 2025

Hey everyone!

I’m working on a part in Abaqus that I imported from SolidWorks, and I’m having a tough time getting a hex or hex-dominated mesh to work. I’ve tried several things like cutting the part with datum planes to make it more meshable, but nothing seems to be working as expected.

The geometry is a bit complex (not crazy, but definitely not a simple block), and I’d really prefer to use hex elements for better accuracy in my simulation. Tetrahedral mesh works, but I’d rather avoid it if possible. It's a rectangle coil.

Has anyone dealt with this before? Any tips, tricks, or workflows you recommend for meshing imported geometries with hex or hex-dominated elements? Do you use the partitioning tool a certain way, or maybe switch to mesh module early?

Any help would be super appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

Here's my sldprt, x_t, and step file if needed.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/146SNO4OzJaZmUV7_hyVXMMjKlRPJPbeK?usp=sharing

FEA way · Jun 24, 2025

This geometry is yellow (sweep meshable) right away but you will get invalid (distorted) elements if you use the default settings. You should assign proper global and local seeds and apply one transverse partition in the middle. Then it will work.

Simfinite engineering · 2025-07-02T20:36:20+0100

Your geometry is a repeating segment as far as I can tell. Easier to just do one part (as I do here) and repeat it.
If I try to partition all in one go there are problems because of small inaccuracies, which is why I first partitioned over the middle, and then only did one turn.
Maybe it's because of the export (check the export options), I only checked the step file.

Anyways, here the method to get a nice mesh, you can do the same all along the geometry (good luck), or do it once and repeat the unit in assembly.

1) partition at the right angles, using e.g. the three point tool

2) there are slight offsets in your segments. Either fix this in solidworks, or use the 'repair small edges' as I do here

3) use medial axis algorithm and minimize mesh transition

4) enjoy the hex mesh, but depending on what you want to calculate, try beam elements first

Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!

Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!

Trouble Meshing Imported SolidWorks Part in Abaqus – Need Help with Hex or Hex-Dominated Mesh

kadalpanas88

Student

Attachments

FEA way

Mechanical

Simfinite engineering

Bioengineer

Similar threads

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor