[sunagra27]

Dear Foamers,


I have an stl file where the mesh was created using Open3D python library (which uses cloud points to convert to mesh). This stl file is in the shape of sphere with bottom part closed. So, the file is watertight (checked with surfaceCheck).


I want to create internal heat transfer from this stl file. I actually wanted the bottom portion of the stl to be a separate part and top portion as separate part. How can I do that?



After snappyHexMesh, I can get complete stl as one region, I was thinking whether the bottom part of blockMesh can be extracted separately?




I have attached the stl file along with the image in this query. Any leads will be appreciated.


Stl file link:



https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KqF...ew?usp=sharing


Image of stl:


https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Cvl...ew?usp=sharing

As can be seen, the stl image is watertight. I need the bottom part of stl to be separate and can it be done using BlockMesh boundary?



Regards,


Sunag R A.

[AtoHM]

You are mixing some stuff together here and it is hard to understand what you want to do due to it.

First of all, the STL file is just a tessellated representation of faces. What you get after snappy is not a stl region, but a finite volume mesh of the volume enclosed by the stl. And there comes my question what you want to do: are you aiming to split the stl (surface) into patches to apply e.g. heat at the boundary or do you want to split the mesh into different parts so you can apply heat sources to cells?


P.S.: on what earth is that a sphere?

[sunagra27]

Dear AtoHM,


Sorry for not addressing the question correctly. Firstly, It is random shape and not sphere..!! My bad..!1


1. I need to apply constant heat at the boundary and some other boundary condition on the surface. So, for this, I wanted to know how to split it?



2. It can be either way of splitting. stl split before entering into snappyHexMesh or boundary condition at the base after snappyHexMesh.



( Note: I dont want stl split because once the stl is splitted, the mesh will be open and snappyHexMesh cant handle it without watertight mesh if I am correct. Also, since the mesh was developed from point cloud, I found it difficult to separate the base and surface mesh accurately).


Hopefully, this is little clarified. Leads will be appreciated.


Regards,


Sunag R A.

[AtoHM]

It is clear now what you are aiming for.



I don't know all the tools of OpenFOAM for stls as I usually generate them to my needs in Solidworks and don't touch them with OF. However, since stls are just a couple of triangles in a long list in ascii files, you can access it and create what you need with a little coding.
The stl can be watertight but split into patches at the same time. If you take a look into the file, you will see it starts with an entry "solid <solidname>", then there is a long list of verteces and stuff and at the end there is usually an "endsolid" entry. This solid can be readily refered to as patch in snappyHexMesh. You can have multiple patches in one stl file that form a closed surface.

So what you could do: the bottom surface you need to "extract" into a single patch seems to be planar. If it is aligned in a coordinate direction, probably all the triangles will lay at a certain position. You can write a bit of python to get the triangle centres. Then go through the file, check if the current triangle is inside the plane or not and just create two lists of triangles. Finally enclose these lists by "solid ..." ... "endsolid" and put them into one stl file. Now you can reference the patches in snappyHexMesh and get two distinct regions for your boundary condition.


This is obviously the hard way, there might be a software package to help split the stl into two. However, basically its just that, order the triangles you already have (watertight) into two lists you can address separately.

[sunagra27]

Dear AtoHM,


Thank you very much for your explanation. This is exactly what I wanted. I will definitely work with the stl file and update the post.


Regards,


Sunag R A.

[crubio.abujas]

Splitting STL is somehow common in 3D printting. You can use blender for do it (its free and open), and maybe do some other manipulation on STL domains if you need so.

Blender is a powerful tool, but it may requiere some time until feeling confortable with it.
Here is a quick tutorial on how to split STL files.

I hope you find it usefull!