Procedure to CREATE A 2D QUADRAQNGULAR MESH FROM AN IMAGE USING SCANIP AND ABAQUS ONLY NOT FOR SCANIP 7!!!

1/ import your 2D image twice (this creates a virtual stack)

2/ create masks as if it was 3D (use option "on all slices" when possible!!)

3/ mesh your data as coarse as you can without changing the geometry (if needed up-sample the z-direction and down-sample the in-plane directions)

4/ set all your masks as non-exportable

5/ in the mesh options, export shells of all your useful masks with zMin (i.e. the plane surface, not the background)

6/ in the mesh options, export contact surfaces between useful masks (and only the useful ones!!) !! scanIP 6 - DO NOT import contact pairs as contact but as node sets !!

7/ export the results in a inp file

8/ make sure your working directory includes the file 'sipShell2Abq2D.py', i.e. this file (or make it available in your python path)

9/ import your inp file as a model

10/ in the abaqus command line type (with nameOfYourModel the name of your model):

myModel = mdb.models['nameOfYourModel']
import sipShell2Abq2D
sipShell2Abq2D.shellTo2DGeo(myModel)

abaqus will look in your scanIP mesh for all the external edges (not only globally external but also those at contact surfaces)

it will rebuild a geometry based on those edges, keeping them as they are

the mesh abaqus produces seeds those edges, the coarser you can get is thus the size of your scanIp mesh

all the node set and contact surfaces produced by scanIP are exported both in part Sets and part Surfaces

if the scanIP mesh used is relatively fine, abaqus won't be able to re-mesh it!! --> use an initial mesh as coarse as you can