TrueGrid® is evolving into an automatic quad and hex mesh generator. This has always been the case in a modest way. The many parametric features in TrueGrid® are typically used to build templates with parameters so that by choosing values for the parameters and executing the session file, one can create an instance of the mesh. This is a form of automatic mesh generation for a class of problems.
When the Transition Block Boundary (TRBB) command was introduced in TrueGrid®, the process of sewing together two dissimilar parts was automated. In version 3, it is also possible to sew together two dissimilar blocks in the same part, automatically with the Transition Block Boundary (TRBB) command. You can watch a video of this new Intrapart TRBB command.
TrueGrid® version 3 introduces the automatic rivet Hole command. This feature carves out a region of a block structured part, inserts a cylindrical hex mesh around the hole, and transitions the hex mesh between this cylindrical mesh and the block structured mesh. You can watch a video of the Hole command.
The automatic rivet Hole feature may seem to be a small step in the evolution towards a fully automatic mesh generator, but it turns out that the algorithm used to fill in the region between the cylindrical mesh and the block structure is almost an automatic quad mesh generator. What follows is an automatic quad mesh generator to be available in the next major release of TrueGrid®. This method will require an even number of boundary nodes. Then the interior will be automatically filled with quad elements, mimicing the multi=block structured meshes that are typically generated using the standard block command in TrueGrid®.
The final stage in the evolution of TrueGrid® will be the automatic hex mesh generator. This feature will take several years to complete and will be offered in another major release of TrueGrid®. It, too, will mimic the multi-block structured meshes typical of the standard block parts in TrueGrid®. It will require that the boundary be formed from all quad faces generated from the automatic quad mesh generator described above. It will be necessary that the boundary quad mesh be closed and formed by an even number of quads. There is an addition condition reguarding holes through the part, which is too complicated to state in this discussion. But both conditions are natural consequences of all hex meshes.