FEM Mesh CalculiX

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FEM element types in CalculiX

For detailed information on FreeCAD FEM elements see FEM Mesh and FEM Element Types. For CalculiX specific questions you may try the Discourse group or the Discord channel.

Segment element

**Segment element from FreeCAD to CalculiX -- node assignment**
seg2 FreeCAD nodes	seg3 FreeCAD nodes

seg2 (B31) CalculiX nodes	seg3 (B32) CalculiX nodes

FreeCAD → CalculiX, Nodes
N1, N2	N1, N3, N2

Triangle element

**Triangle element from FreeCAD to CalculiX -- node assignment**
tria3 FreeCAD nodes	tria6 FreeCAD nodes

tria3 (S3) CalculiX nodes	tria6 (S6) CalculiX nodes

FreeCAD → CalculiX, Nodes
N1, N2, N3	N1, N2, N3, N4, N5, N6

Quadrangle element

**Quadrangle element from FreeCAD to CalculiX -- node assignment**
quad4 FreeCAD nodes	quad8 FreeCAD nodes

quad4 (S4) CalculiX nodes	quad8 (S8) CalculiX nodes

FreeCAD → CalculiX, Nodes
N1, N2, N3, N4	N1, N2, N3, N4, N5, N6, N7, N8

Tetrahedron element

The following node order is not implemented ! TODO: verify node order (do not forget getccxVolumesByFace()).

**Tetrahedron element from FreeCAD to CalculiX -- node assignment**
tetra4 FreeCAD nodes	tetra10 FreeCAD nodes

tetra4 (C3D4) CalculiX nodes	tetra10 (C3D10) CalculiX nodes

FreeCAD → CalculiX, Nodes
N2, N3, N4, N1	N2, N3, N4, N1, N6, N10, N9, N5, N7, N8

Hexahedron element

**Hexahedron element from FreeCAD to CalculiX -- node assignment**
hexa8 FreeCAD nodes	hexa20 FreeCAD nodes

hexa8 (C3D8) CalculiX nodes	hexa20 (C3D20) CalculiX nodes

FreeCAD → CalculiX, Nodes
N6, N7, N8, N5, N2, N3, N4, N1	N6, N7, N8, N5, N2, N3, N4, N1, N14, N15, N16, N13, N10, N11, N12, N9, N18, N19, N20, N17

Pentahedron element

**Pentahedron element from FreeCAD to CalculiX -- node assignment**
penta6 FreeCAD nodes	penta15 FreeCAD nodes

penta6 (C3D6) CalculiX nodes	penta15 (C3D15) CalculiX nodes

FreeCAD → CalculiX, Nodes
N5, N6, N4, N2, N3, N1	N5, N6, N4, N2, N3, N1, N11, N12, N10, N8, N9, N7, N14, N15, N13

Related

FEM CalculiX page
CalculiX preferences dialog menu in the FEM Workbench preferences menu

FEM

FEM Analysis

Materials: Solid, Fluid, Nonlinear mechanical, Reinforced (concrete); Material editor

Element geometry: Beam (1D), Beam rotation (1D), Shell (2D), Fluid flow (1D)

Constraints

Electromagnetic: Electrostatic potential, Current density, Magnetization

Fluid: Initial flow velocity, Initial pressure, Flow velocity

Geometrical: Plane rotation, Section print, Transform

Mechanical: Fixed, Displacement, Contact, Tie, Spring, Force, Pressure, Centrif, Self weight

Thermal: Initial temperature, Heat flux, Temperature, Body heat source

Overwrite Constants: Constant vacuum permittivity

Mesh: Mesh Netgen, Mesh GMSH, Mesh boundary layer, Mesh region, Mesh group, Nodes set, Mesh to mesh

Solve: CalculiX Standard, Elmer, Mystran, Z88; Equations: Deformation, Elasticity, Electrostatic, Electricforce, Magnetodynamic, Magnetodynamic 2D, Flow, Flux, Heat; Solver: Solver control, Solver run

Results: Purge, Show; Postprocessing: Apply changes, Pipeline from result, Warp filter, Scalar clip filter, Function cut filter, Region clip filter, Contours filter, Line clip filter, Stress linearization plot, Data at point clip filter, Filter function plane, Filter function sphere, Filter function cylinder, Filter function box

Utilities: Clipping plane, Remove clipping planes, Open FEM examples; Mesh clear, Mesh display info

Additional: Preferences; FEM Install, FEM Mesh, FEM Solver, FEM CalculiX, FEM Concrete; FEM Element Types

User documentation

Getting started
Installation: Download, Windows, Linux, Mac, Additional components, Docker, AppImage, Ubuntu Snap
Basics: About FreeCAD, Interface, Mouse navigation, Selection methods, Object name, Preferences, Workbenches, Document structure, Properties, Help FreeCAD, Donate

Help: Tutorials, Video tutorials
Workbenches: Std Base, Assembly, BIM, CAM, Draft, FEM, Inspection, Material, Mesh, OpenSCAD, Part, PartDesign, Points, Reverse Engineering, Robot, Sketcher, Spreadsheet, Surface, TechDraw, Test Framework

Addons: Addon Manager, External workbenches, Scripting and macros

Hubs: User hub, Power users hub, Developer hub