What is a mesh?

A mesh is a collection of points (nodes) and shapes (elements) that represent a larger geometry or computational domain. Meshes can be used for a variety of purposes, including computational simulations (finite element, volume, and difference methods), computer graphics, image analysis, and additive manufacturing.

In MyMesh, a mesh is defined primarily by the set of node coordinates (NodeCoords) and the set of node connectivities (NodeConn) which indicate the nodes that are connected to form each element. The elements are convex polygons or polyhedra, each defined by ordering nodes according to standard conventions.

Mesh Types

MyMesh considers three main Types of mesh and several sub-types.

Line Meshes (Type='line')

Line meshes are made up of edge elements. These meshes could represent a 1D mesh (e.g. a series of springs), the outer boundary of an open surface mesh, or the wireframe of a volumetric mesh.

Surface Meshes (Type='surf')

Surface meshes are compos of surface elements (namely tris and quads), including both 2D planar meshes and 3D surfaces.

2D Planar Meshes

2D planar meshes exist in a plane (most commonly the x-y plane) such as a mesh based on a 2D image. They contain both interior elements and elements with boundary edges.

3D Surfaces

3D surfaces consist of 2D elements but exist within a three dimensional space. These surfaces can either be open (with exposed edges) or closed.

Volume Meshes (Type='vol')

Volumetric meshes are made of three dimensional elements such as tetrahedra or hexahedra.

Voxel Meshes

Voxel meshes are a special case of hexahedral meshes consisting of uniform cubic or rectangular elements that arise from three dimensional images where each voxel (the three dimensional, volumetric analog to a pixel) is converted to an element. While a voxel mesh could be full grid of voxels, more commonly the mesh will be thresholded to obtain a voxelized geometry.