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Dave wrote:

thanks again claus. this is very helpful.

there must be something strange going on since i cannot select 3D mesh on my resulting partition object, i am only allowed 1D mesh by the popup menu. the part is definitely a solid and i am only using a plane to partition it. i am selecting edges as the resulting structure since i only want edges added to my solid. i imagine this is my problem.

actually, it looks like i am able to create a 3D mesh on a partition if i use the 2nd partitioning method. what are the differences between those 2 methods.

also i have a question about partitioning a face on a solid. i am only interested in getting 2 lines on a face but not cutting the entire solid as that would lead to very poor element structure once meshed. i have partitioned a defined face "group" but that results in a new partition that is definitely not a solid. so is it possible to add edges to just one of the faces of the solid and still get out a solid with all subsequent partitioning entities available for mesh groups?

thanks again.

Im still not sure what the first partition method is so I can't really comment on that but I can tell you that the behaviour of the mesher is quite normal when you only select an edge to be meshed => 1D mesh.

You've answered your own question regarding partitioning a small area of a solid; the plane (or whatever) you use to partition with, only partitions the area it intersects with, thus you can create a plane from points on the solid etc. or a predetermined size and then translate and rotate it into place before partitioning. The results can sometimes be.. interesting though