During 2022 there was a change in FEA simulations regarding the 1st and 2nd order options for mesh creation. In the past, switching from 1st to 2nd order was possible in the main Mesh tab.
But a new feature was introduced, the “Element Technology”. Every mesh that is being created after that, shows the order type used here:
But past meshes do not have this detail:
So if you are going through the setup of an old simulation, and you do not remember the order type, or your mesh is deleted as well, and you can’t compare the amount of nodes and cells, you can find this information in the Event Log.
Simply do a CTRL+S on the sentence “NOMBRE DE NOEUDS”.
You will some details that indicate whether the 1st or 2nd order elements were used:
-
Tria3 → 1st order
-
Tria6 → 2nd order
-
Tetra4 → 1st order
-
Tetra10 → 2nd order
Here is an example, that indicates that a 2nd order mesh was used for this run:
