A: Before running SolidSquad, use the Curve or CAD tools to draw a circle around the hole. Apply a Keep or Protect constraint to that feature. SolidSquad will skip healing it.
In the world of engineering simulation, the mantra is often "garbage in, garbage out." No matter how powerful your solver or how fine your computing cluster, the accuracy of your Finite Element Analysis (FEA) or Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is entirely dependent on the quality of your mesh. For users of the Ansys ecosystem, specifically those working with legacy CAD formats or imperfect geometries, one tool stands out as a lifesaver: Ansys SolidSquad . ansys solidsquad
This tool is the unsung hero of simulation. It takes the garbage in and polishes it until it is gold. If you have ever spent three weeks debugging a meshing failure only to find a single, microscopic sliver surface in a 10GB CAD file, you know the value of SolidSquad. A: Before running SolidSquad, use the Curve or
geometry.heal_sliver_faces(tolerance=0.1) geometry.fill_holes(max_hole_diameter=5.0) This replicates the batch-processing nature of the original SolidSquad. While SolidSquad is powerful, it is not AI. It can make mistakes. Here are the pitfalls to avoid: 1. Over-healing If you set the tolerance too high (e.g., healing all gaps > 0.5 inches), SolidSquad will cap off legitimate holes that are supposed to be there (like an inlet pipe opening or a bolt hole). Fix: Always lower the tolerance for final engineering features. 2. The "Wonky Normal" Problem Sometimes SolidSquad will flip face normals (inside becomes outside). This creates an "inverted volume" that crashes the solver. Fix: Immediately after running SolidSquad, run Geometry > Check Normals . Ensure all arrows point outward. 3. Performance on Large Assemblies Running SolidSquad on a 50,000-part assembly might take 12 hours. It is computationally heavy because it is solving a "stitching" geometry problem. Fix: Break the assembly into sub-assemblies. Heal each part separately, then use the Assemble tool to glue them together. Part 7: Why SolidSquad Still Matters in 2025 and Beyond You might think that with modern CAD translation standards (like the highly robust STEP AP242 format), geometry repair tools are obsolete. They are not. In the world of engineering simulation, the mantra
The rise of and Generative Design is creating geometries that cannot be exported cleanly. Lattice structures and organic shapes often come out of a topology solver as non-manifold, messy meshes. Converting those back to usable solids for validation analysis requires the exact batch-healing logic of SolidSquad .