FEM Mesh

Create a FEM Mesh
There are different possibilities to create a FEM Mesh in FreeCAD:
 * The FreeCAD FEM mesh Netgen tool MeshNetgenFromShape by GUI usage or by Python
 * The FreeCAD FEM mesh GMSH tool MeshGmshFromShape by GUI usage or by Python
 * Python directly means make the FEM Mesh by Hand
 * Import a FEM Mesh

Objects created in PartDesign and Part are supported, as well as simple copies of those bodies. There are two meshers available to the user: Netgen and GMSH. Netgen is included in FreeCAD. For GMSH an external binary needs to be installed. Refer to FEM Install

implemented

 * Gmsh
 * http://gmsh.info/
 * https://gitlab.onelab.info/gmsh/gmsh
 * Netgen
 * https://ngsolve.org/
 * https://github.com/NGSolve/netgen

of interest

 * ENigMA
 * https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=33048
 * https://github.com/bjaraujo/ENigMA
 * libMesh
 * https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=33621
 * http://libmesh.github.io/
 * https://github.com/libMesh/libmesh
 * Very active. C++ only
 * PythonOCC
 * http://www.pythonocc.org/
 * SnappyHexMesh
 * https://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/SnappyHexMesh
 * Tetgen
 * http://wias-berlin.de/software/tetgen/

FEM Mesh Elements in FreeCAD
FreeCAD supports various element types. There is an external blog link which explains about the differences and when to use which element type: https://www.comsol.com/blogs/meshing-your-geometry-various-element-types/


 * "ni" means the element type is not implemented in FreeCAD but the format would support it.
 * "-" means the format specification does not support this element type, thus FreeCAD can not support it.
 * "?" it is not known if the format supports this element type.

General
More informations about the FEM element types and their data structure inside FreeCAD can be find on FEM Element Types.

Creating a mesh with one Tet-10 Elements
If you want to have predefined element and node numbering:

Visual handling
Highlight some nodes on the view:

Postprocessing colors and displacement: Highlight some nodes on the view: