Though UFX supports non-manifold and open (not watertight) inputs, having a
watertight cabin will help to avoid any back and forth between modeling and setup.
Once you are comfortable with the model, you can skip certain checks related to
watertightness.
Extract external surface through a script:
Stamped parts (parts with continuous thickness – doors, hood, cabin
floor, and so on)
Script identifies one side of thickness surfaces with
maximum area
After surfaces are extracted, remove unnecessary faces
further such that opposite part boundary edges faces each
other
Non-stamped parts (mirrors, plastic parts, and so on)
Manually extract wetted faces
For some complex parts, you might have to trim some surfaces
in order to extract clean wetted faces
Generate facets/mesh on exterior surfaces:
Generate faceted mesh on extracted wetted faces (use rigid body
mesher – maximum size 20 mm, minimum size 0.1 mm, maximum deviation
0.1 mm)
Rigid body mesher captures all fillets and curvature with optimum
number of triads
Make sure generated facets are not deviating much from geometry
Cabin floor parts can be meshed with constant size of 8 mm
Close holes:
After facet/mesh generation, fill holes using the Fill Hole/Gap
utility
Select all components
Define maximum width (generally 50 fills up all holes)
Fuse gaps:
Use fuse tool to connect parts with wetted faces
Upper body parts fuse:
In the below example, wetted faces are extracted so they
have gaps/proximity between them
The option “Fuse free edges only” is used
Fuse threshold depends on maximum gap between parts.
Generally, it varies between 6-12 mm
You can select multiple source and target parts for one fuse
operation
Fuse cabin floor parts:
Here parts are either in proximity, overlapping or
intersecting
Deactivate the “Fuse free edges only” option for such
parts
Fuse threshold depends on maximum gap between parts.
Generally, it varies between 8 - 10 mm
Source parts will move to target, so select source and
target accordingly
After fusing if there are any bad elements, manually fix them at the
end
Generate apron faces for large openings:
If there is a big gap between cabin floor and upper body, create
apron faces first
Use Fill Hole/Gap tool > Patch fill > Select surrounding nodes and
create patch
Fuse upper body with cabin floor
Perform checks for watertight cabin:
Check for free edges, non-manifold edges
If free edges are valid, mark the corresponding component with
“Baffle” name