Create a symmetrical quadrant of a flow volume by uniting a box with a cylinder and then intersecting the resulting geometry with another box.

Checkout a screencast of this tutorial at "Screencast of Flow Through a Pipe into a Box."

Goals

In this tutorial, you will learn how to:

• Create a box and a cylinder
• Translate objects
• Unite volumes
• Intersect volumes

Assumptions

1. You have activated the Caedium Builder add-on or Caedium Professional.
2. You are familiar with Caedium essentials.

Create a Box

Select the Geometry Tool Palette.

Select the Volumes->Box tool. In the Properties Panel, set Lengths to [1 1 4]. Press Enter on the keyboard to apply the changes to the Properties Panel.

Drag and drop the Volumes->Box tool onto the View Window (view). Select Done to create a box (volume).

All geometry is created at the origin by default.

To shade the faces of the box, right-click on one of the edges of the volume, double-click volume->Faces, and then select Properties from the menu. In the Properties Panel, turn off the Transparent property.

Create a Cylinder

In the Geometry Tool Palette, select the Volumes->Cylinder tool and turn off the Decompose property in the Properties Panel. Set the Radius to 0.2 and set Z Height to 1. Press Enter on the keyboard to apply the changes to the Properties Panel.

The Decompose option instructs Caedium to split the cylinder into six four-edged faces. This option is useful in simplifying the meshing process.

To rotate the view so you can see the reference face used in the next step, left-click-and-drag the mouse in the View Window until your view looks like that shown below.

Drag and drop the Volumes->Cylinder tool directly onto the box (volume) face furthest away from the origin in the Z direction. Double-click the first face in the Select dialog and select Done to generate a cylinder (volume_1).

In the Home Toolbar click the Fit-All button to see all the geometry in the View Window.

The cylinder base will be centered on the box face.

Translate the Cylinder

The cylinder needs to be translated toward the box (in the -Z-direction) to ensure a good overlap (avoid coincident geometry) between the cylinder and the box face, ready for the unite Boolean operation.

To translate the cylinder (volume_1) to a new location in the View Window, select the Transforms->Translate tool. In the Properties Panel set Translate to [0 0 -0.1] and press Enter on the keyboard to apply the changes.

Drag the Transforms->Translate tool and drop it directly onto the cylinder in the View Window. Select Done to translate the cylinder.

Unite the Box and the Cylinder

Drag and drop the Booleans->Unite tool directly onto a face of the box. Double-click volume in the Select dialog to select the box. Select Select/Deselect from the menu, right-click on an edge of the cylinder (volume_1), and then double-click volume_1 to select the cylinder. Select Done to unite the cylinder and the box and create a new volume (volume_2).

Create the Quadrant Box

Select the Volumes->Box tool. In the Properties Panel, set Lengths to [2 2 6]. Press Enter on the keyboard to apply the changes to the Properties Panel.

Drag and drop the Volumes->Box tool onto the View Window (view). Double-click sim in the Select dialog and select Done to create the quadrant box (volume_3).

Translate and Intersect

Translate the united box and cylinder (volume_2) to [-0.5 -0.5 0.5], using the same procedure as in the previous translation.

Drag and drop the Booleans->Intersect tool directly onto an edge of the united box and cylinder (volume_2). Double-click volume_2 in the Select dialog to select the volume.

Select Select/Deselect from the menu, right-click on the edge of the quadrant box (volume_3), and then double-click volume_3. Select Done to intersect the two volumes and create a new volume (volume_4).

Notes

The complete geometry created in this tutorial is available as a free download.

See the "Incompressible Flow Through a Pipe into a Box" tutorial for a flow simulation through this geometry.