Cubit is a CAD toolkit used to generate volume and surface meshes for CFD and FEA analysis. Its main focus is large hex meshes for complex, interlocking assemblies. Mesh generation algorithms include quadrilateral and triangular paving, 2D and 3D mapping, hex sweeping and multi-sweeping, tet meshing, and various special purpose primitives. Cubit contains many algorithms for controlling and automating much of the meshing process, such as automatic scheme selection, interval matching, sweep grouping and sweep verification, and also includes state-of-the-art smoothing algorithms.
One of Cubit's strengths is its ability to import and mesh geometry from a variety of CAD packages. Cubit currently integrates the ACIS, Granite, and Catia geometry kernels directly within its code base, allowing direct manipulation of the native CAD geometry format within Cubit. This reduces the errors and anomalies so often associated with geometry translation. CGM also boasts a facet-based geometry kernel developed at Sandia that can be used for remeshing or editing old mesh files or models defined by triangle facets. In addition, Cubit has developed a comprehensive virtual geometry capability that permits local composites and partitions to geometry without modifying the underlying native geometry representation. The user can choose to ignore, clean-up or add features to the model allowing greater flexibility to meshing algorithms to generate better quality elements.
Cubit includes both a convenient command line interface with an extensive command language as well as a polished graphical user interface environment. The GUI is based upon the cross-platform standard QT, which allows the same look and feel on all supported platforms. Also included is a graphical environment based upon the VTK graphics standard which has been optimized for display and manipulation of finite element data and geometry. Fast, interactive manipulation of the model is a tremendous advantage for models with thousands of parts or millions of elements.
Cubit has many tools to prepare geometry for meshing. It automatically cleans up many cases of invalid geometry and topology when importing geometry models. You can collapse small curves and surfaces, or extend them to fill gaps. You can add geometric primitives to the model. You can do geometry boolean operations. To facilitate mesh generation, you can cut volumes with various tools. Cubit imprints and merges geometry to allow conformal meshing of complex assemblies.
Cubit has the following meshing algorithms:
Cubit can automatically select an appropriate hex or quad mesh algorithm for many cases. It can also set up edge mesh sizing for you. After meshing, you can check several mesh quality metrics. You can smooth the mesh using Laplacian, Centroid-area Pull, Equipotential, Jacobian Optimization, Condition Number Optimization, Winslow, or Untangling. You can also refine the mesh globally or locally.
Cubit supports sidesets, nodesets and element blocks for Exodus II, which can be used for material, assignments, generic loads and other boundary conditions. Cubit also supports Abaqus, Fluent, LS-Dyna, Nastran, and Patran boundary conditions. The boundary conditions can be visualized in the graphics window.
The user interface is cross platform and built using Qt. The main part of the interface is the graphics window. This shows the model and allows you to interact with it. There are a few components around the graphics window. The first is a hierarchical panel on the right side to execute all the commands in Cubit. Next, on the left, is the object tree and properties page. Along with the tree, there are a few power tools and the ITEM wizard. The ITEM panel can be used to guide you through the geometry cleanup and meshing process. On the bottom, is the command console that can be used to manually enter commands. It also shows the text output from commands and any warnings or errors that occur. There is a Python scripting tab as well. Cubit comes with an integrated HTML help browser.
Cubit supports the following formats:
Cubit is available for
【2014/03/14】
【2012/06/13】
【2012/05/11】