Sculpt Output

Sculpt options for specifying output. The primary format for the hex meshes produced from Sculpt is Exodus II. One exodus file will be produced for each processor based upon the -j or num_procs argument. If required, the exodus files can be joined using the epu utility.

Other options for export include the ability to dump the volume fraction representation of the input geometry as well as the ability to write geometry files for use in Cubit.

Output 		--output 	-out
  --exodus_file,	-e <args>	Output Exodus file base name
  --volfrac_file,	-vf <args>	Output Volume Fraction file base name
  --quality,		-Q		Dump quality metrics to file
  --export_comm_maps,	-C		Export parallel comm maps to debug exo files
  --write_geom,		-G		Write geometry associativity file
  --write_mbg,		-M		Write mesh based geometry file 
  --compare_volume,	-cv		Report vfrac and mesh volume comparison

Sculpt Command Summary

Command: exodus_file     Output Exodus file base name

Long Name:     --exodus_file 
Short Name:     -e 
Argument Type:   character string 

The base file name of the resulting exodus mesh. Exodus files will be in the form <exodus_file>.e.<nproc>.<iproc>. For example, if the number of processors used is 3 and the exodus_file argument is "model", the following files would be written:

    	model.e.3.0
    	model.e.3.1
    	model.e.3.2
    

If no exodus_file argument is used, output files will be in the form <stl_file>_diatom_results.e.<nprocs>.<iproc>. For example, if the number of processors used is 3 and the stl_file (or diatom_file) is "model.stl", the following files would be written:

    	model_diatom_results.e.3.0
    	model_diatom_results.e.3.1
    	model_diatom_results.e.3.2
    

A full path may be used when specifying the base exodus file name, otherwise files will be placed in the current working directory. If the exodus_file option is not used, exodus files will be placed in the same directory as the input diatom or stl file.

Command: volfrac_file     Output Volume Fraction file base name

Long Name:     --volfrac_file 
Short Name:     -vf 
Argument Type:   character string 

Optionally generate exodus files containing a hex mesh of the Cartesian grid containing volume fraction data as element variables. This series of parallel exodus files can later be used as direct input to sculpt using the --input_vfrac (-ivf) command. If not specified, no volume fraction data files will be generated.

Command: quality     Dump quality metrics to file

Long Name:     --quality 
Short Name:     -Q 
Argument Type:   no argument 

A file named 'quality.csv' will be created in the current working directory (or appended). Quality metrics and other details of the run will be written to this file. This option is currently off by default.

Command: export_comm_maps     Export parallel comm maps to debug exo files

Long Name:     --export_comm_maps 
Short Name:     -C 
Argument Type:   no argument 

Used for debugging and verification. Exodus files of the mesh containing the communication nodes and faces at processor boundaries will be written as nodes and side sets. This provides a way to visually check the validity of the parallel communication maps.

Command: write_geom     Write geometry associativity file

Long Name:     --write_geom 
Short Name:     -G 
Argument Type:   no argument 

An s2g (Sculpt to Geometry) file, with the pattern <fileroot>.s2g,will be produced when this argument is used where fileroot is the string specified by the --exodus_file or -e option. An s2g file includes geometry associativity for the exodus file that is written. If used with Cubit's "import s2g <fileroot>" a mesh-based geometry will be generated in Cubit with geometric entities prescribed by Sculpt through the s2g file.

When used with the --trimesh option, the s2g file can provide information to Cubit to build a set of mesh-based geometry volumes where only the surfaces are meshed. This is useful for using the tet meshing capabilities in Cubit to mesh the discrete geometry that was generated in Sculpt. For example, a tet mesh may be constructed from microstructures spn data (see import_spn) with the following workflow:

1. Run Sculpt to generate an exodus and s2g file. An example input file may look like the following:

         begin sculpt
           import_spn = myfile.spn
           trimesh = true
           write_geom = true
           pillow = 1
         end sculpt

2. Import the file into Cubit to generate a mesh based geometry:

         import s2g myfile

3. Delete the triangle mesh, set sizes and mesh:

         delete mesh
         vol all scheme tetmesh
         vol all size 2.0
         mesh vol all

Command: write_mbg     Write mesh based geometry file 

Long Name:     --write_mbg 
Short Name:     -M 
Argument Type:   no argument 

An MBG (Mesh Based Geometry) file will be produced when this argument is used with the pattern .mbg, where fileroot is the string specified by the --exodus_file or -e option. An MBG file includes the surface and topology definition defined by sculpt as a result of the interface reconstruction process. It will correspond to the boundary of the 3D elements that are generated in the exodus file, or the surface elements generated with the --trimesh option.

An MBG file can be be imported into Cubit using the following Cubit command line options:

      import mbg "<fileroot>.mbg"
    

Command: compare_volume     Report vfrac and mesh volume comparison

Long Name:     --compare_volume 
Short Name:     -cv 
Argument Type:   no argument 

A report will be generated and printed to the terminal following the mesh summary that compares the input volume fraction of the geometry with that of the final finite element mesh. If a volume fraction format is not used as input, the volume fractions will be computed on the refined base grid and used as comparison. Note that exact geometric volumes of the STL or analytic geometry are not used for comparison, rather the volume fraction approximation of the geometry on the refined Cartesian grid.