2.8.1 Changing Case and Mesh Settings Before Beginning a Calculation

If the mesh has not been changed using tools in FLUENT (e.g., scaling, conversion to polyhedra, adaption, merge, split, etc.), any changes to the settings are automatically saved to the settings ( .set) file.

If the mesh has been changed using tools in FLUENT and the mesh was imported into the FLUENT application or the system's Setup cell, any changes to the settings are automatically saved to the settings ( .set) file. In addition, a case file is saved and registered to the Setup cell to represent the modified mesh.

If the mesh has been changed using tools in FLUENT and the mesh was provided to the system's Setup cell by an upstream cell, you are prompted with the following dialog:

Figure 2.8.1: The Mesh has changed! Dialog

Since the mesh was provided to the system's Setup cell by an upstream cell, the original mesh cannot be replaced by the modified mesh without also making changes to the Project Schematic. Since there are several ways in which the schematic can be modified, FLUENT does not provide a way to do this automatically.

You can choose any of the following actions:

• Select OK in the warning dialog. Any changes to the settings will be saved to the settings file. The action you requested when you were prompted will proceed. If you had selected to calculate, the iterations (or time-steps) will be performed on the modified mesh. If you had selected to close FLUENT or save the project, the modified mesh will be stored in the case file that is written as a result of either of those actions.

  If you open FLUENT from the Setup cell, or update or refresh the Setup or Solution cell from the Project Schematic, the modified mesh will be replaced with the mesh provided by the upstream cell. To calculate using the modified mesh, either open FLUENT from the Solution cell or select Continue Calculation from the Solution cell's context menu.

  If you specified settings before you changed the mesh, you must also verify that those settings are consistent with the modified mesh.

  If you want to use the modified mesh as the starting point for another analysis, simply create a new FLUENT-based system and import the new case file that contains the modified mesh into its Setup cell.

• Select Cancel in the warning dialog and create a case modification strategy that automatically performs the desired mesh modification steps (as well as any settings changes that are dependent on the modified mesh) before calculating (see Section  2.9). This will allow you to automatically repeat the desired mesh modifications every time you perform an Update or restart the calculation from the Setup cell.

  If you plan to make modifications to your mesh in FLUENT (such as scaling, rotating, or converting to polyhedra) before performing any calculations, and you do not require any change made upstream of the FLUENT Setup cell to be propagated to the mesh in the future, you should import the mesh you plan to modify directly into the Setup cell of a FLUENT-based analysis or component system.