Notes

ProTOp is developed to handle very efficiently models containing a very large number of finite elements. The best options are selected automatically without user intervention.

Irrespective of that, however, ProTOp offers various additional strategies that the user can engage in order to boost the performance even further. This can be especially useful in cases when the actual number of elements exceeds the number of elements shown in the machine information chart.

The columns of the chart show the estimated maximal number of active finite elements that will be handled very efficiently without any user intervention. These numbers depend on computer memory and finite element type. The types of the elements are:

• TTH4 (linear tetrahedral 4-node element),
• HXH8 (linear hexahedral 8-node element), and
• TTH10 (quadratic tetrahedral 10-node element).

If the actual number of finite elements exceeds the corresponding number in the chart, the user should consider the following guidelines.

█ Guidelines to boost optimization performance for very large models

For very large models the best improvements are obtained by reducing the number of actually handled finite elements. To achieve this, ProTOp offers two possibilities as follows.

• Engage gradual refinement technique. Start optimization with a low-density mesh. After a given amount of material is removed, gradually refine the mesh and optionally strip off redundant void elements. This can be repeated several times, which enables a gradual transition from a very low-density mesh to a very high-density mesh. In this way a full-material design of a dense mesh might never be needed at all.
• Engage bottom-up optimization. Configure your part to contain as many void regions as possible and run the optimizer to add material only where needed. In this way a full-material design might never be needed.

█ Element conversion

Some element types are extraordinary memory and time consuming. Quadratic tetrahedral elements are an example of such elements. Therefore, if the imported model contains TTH10 elements, it is usually advantageous to convert the TTH10 elements into linear TTH4 elements by using the ProTOp element conversion tool.