Sketch Workflow

Note

To more accurately reflect operations performed in both FLAC2D and FLAC3D, this workspace, which was previously named the “Extrusion” tool, has been renamed “Sketch”.

The Sketch workspace is an interactive facility for drawing and meshing 2D models and, if working in FLAC3D, extruding them into a third dimension. Each “sketch” is created within a separate sketch set; a modeling project may contain multiple sets.

The Sketch workspace is accessed by opening a new or existing sketch set in the project (described further below).

Workflow

Figure 1: Ocher indicates an optional action—though it is likely that in one or more of the three main steps where it appears, the “set meshing” task will be necessary. The blue step is pertinent to FLAC3D only.

The workflow indicated above is described in the remaining topics of this section.

• Create/Open a Sketch
  • Start A New Sketch
  • Open an Existing Sketch
• Background Images
  • Import a Background Image
  • Select a Background Image
  • Deselect an Image
  • Move a Background Image
  • Pin a Background Bitmap Image
  • Rotate a Background Image
  • Cycling the Edit Modes
  • Snap-To Behavior on Background Geometry
  • Selection With Two Images in the Sketch
• Points and Edges
  • Creating Points and Edges
  • Deleting Points and Edges
  • Edge Zoning
  • Advanced Edge Operations
• Blocks
  • Create a Single Block
  • Create Multiple Blocks
  • Structured Mesh Operations
  • Unstructured Mesh Operations
  • Delete
  • Automatic Meshing & Meshing Defaults
• Extrusion (3D only)
  • Selection & Properties
  • Initial Extrusion
  • Initial Extrusion Path
  • Defining the Extrusion Path
  • Curving the Extrusion Path
  • Meshing Along the Extrusion Path
  • Building the Sketch
  • Advanced Topics
• Generating Zones