Data Tables Technical Guide
Section 6 - <FINITE ELEMENT MESH>
6.1 Overview

A <Finite Element Mesh> instance represents a tessellation of a surface or solid into mesh faces (for a surface) or solid elements (for a solid). Each vertex and / or mesh face / solid element may have data associated with it. Knowing which vertices form a mesh face (or solid element) is important for interpolation, as well as other computations.

A <Finite Element Mesh>, as specified in the definition of the class, is comprised of the following.

  1. An ordered list of <Vertex> components, so that each vertex is associated with an index number.

  2. A <Mesh Face Table> that defines the mesh faces by mesh face index number in terms of vertex index numbers.

  3. Optionally, <Property Table> instances may be attached as components of the <Finite Element Mesh> to provide additional data. Such a <Property Table> might have a vertex number axis to provide additional vertex data, or a mesh face number axis to provide additional mesh face data.

    In particular, if the <Finite Element Mesh> is specified in terms of solid elements, a <Property Table> may be provided as a "solid element definition table", so that other <Property Table> components of the <Finite Element Mesh> can then exist and provide solid element data.

Topological information may optionally be included via either the <Mesh Face Table> or the "solid element definition table". A <Mesh Face Table> shall comply with very rigid structural requirements in order to be semantically valid; see its class documentation and that of <Finite Element Mesh> for details.


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