Exporting exelem and exnode file from Grid-based FEM

Grid-based FEM Mesh

• A standard CMISS mesh, defined by ipelem and ipnode files, is exported to CMGUI format with the following commands:

  • 'fem export elem;FILE' and 'fem export node;FILE'

• Such commands are reserved for standard CMISS meshes and they cannot be used to export a mesh created for Grid-based FEM. Note that Grid-based FEM uses on a lighter implementation of nodes and elements.

• We can however print out the mesh for Grid-based FEM but we must use the following commands:

  • 'fem export points;FILE grid' and 'fem export grid;FILE'

• The first command generates an 'exnode' file that is of the same form as the CMGUI exnode file.

• The second command generates an 'exelem' file that is of the same form as the CMGUI exelem file. Note that an exelem file contains the collection of 1D, 2D, and 3D elements.

• Then you can create a script to change these files into any of your favorite mesh files (TruGrid,libMesh,etc.) that provide the nodes and elements along with element connectivity. (I'm working on one at the moment and will provide that in the future.)