Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 September 2010
Several research works have been focused on integrating FEA (finite-elements analysis)with CAD (Computer Aided Design) over the last decade. In spite of the improvementsbrought by this integration, research work remains to be done in order to better integrateall the operations led during the design process. Until now, the communication between CADmodules remains static. The design process involves several modifications of an initialdesign solution. Consequently, there is a need for more flexible communications betweenCAD modules through the design cycle. Some approaches have been developed in order toreduce the design process length when using FEA, and to automate the transfer of part’sdata from one step of the process to the next one. Automatic re-meshing is one of theseapproaches and it is based on automatically updating the part’s mesh around modificationszones, in the case of a minor change in the part’s design, without the need to re-mesh theentire part. The purpose of this paper is presenting a new tool, aiming at the improvementof automatic re-meshing procedures. It basically consists in automatically identifying andlocating modifications between two CAD parts (typically an initial design and a modifieddesign). A major benefit of the approach presented here is that it is completelyindependent of the description frame, which is made possible with the use of vector-basedgeometric representations.