Generation of a finite element MESH from stereolithography (STL) files

The aim of the method proposed here is to show the possibility of generating adaptive surface meshes suitable for the finite element method, directly from an approximated boundary representation of an object created with CAD software. First, we describe the boundary representation, which is composed of a simple triangulation of the surface of the object. Then we will show how to obtain a conforming size-adapted mesh. The size adaptation is made considering geometrical approximation and with respect to an isotropic size map provided by an error estimator. The mesh can be used "as is" for a finite element computation (with shell elements), or can be used as a surface mesh to initiate a volume meshing algorithm (Delaunay or advancing front). The principle used to generate the mesh is based on the Delaunay method, which is associated with refinement algorithms, and smoothing. Finally, we will show that not using the parametric representation of the geometrical model allows us to override some of the limitations of conventional meshing software that is based on an exact representation of the geometry. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.