SwiftBlock is a Blender GUI add-on for the OpenFOAM® BlockMesh utility, which creates hexahedral block structured volume meshes for OpenFOAM simulations. Block structure is first modelled as a mesh object in Blender. A graph theory based method implemented in the addon identifies the discrete hexahedral blocks in the mesh object and generates blockMeshDict. Main features include
- user specified divisions and optional grading of block edges
- specification of patches (boundary surfaces)
- specification of blocks to create cell zones/sets
- easy block manipulations including selection, visualisation and disabling of blocks
- visualization of edge directions
- projection of block edges to surfaces on another object to create curved shapes
Application examples include creation of block meshes for
- structured meshes with control of boundary layers
- orthogonal base mesh with elongated or stretched cells for SnappyHexMesh
- controlled grading of hexahedral meshes inside or outside rectangular, cylindrical or spherical shapes.
The add-on has been tested with Blender 2.82 and OpenFOAM Foundation version 7 of OpenFOAM.
Documentation (made using Sphinx) is located in docs directory of the sources and is viewable online at https://swiftblock.readthedocs.io.
This offering is not approved or endorsed by OpenCFD Limited, producer and distributor of the OpenFOAM software via www.openfoam.com, and owner of the OPENFOAM® and OpenCFD® trade marks.