A suggestion for a new FEM mesh GMsh icon

About the development of the FEM module/workbench.

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jmaustpc
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A suggestion for a new FEM mesh GMsh icon

Post by jmaustpc »

Hi everyone,

I have been helping Keith Sloan by creating the icons he needed for his GDML WB. We had to work out how to differential some icons that do a similar job to others but do so by using Gmsh. I was a bit lost on how to achieve this other than by adding a "Gmsh" or "G" to the icon. I generally don't like using letters in icons because they are then not translated for the non-English languages. Keith suggested that I incorporate a object that looks like the gmsh logo.

This is a link to the Gmsh logo on github

https://gitlab.onelab.info/gmsh/gmsh/-/ ... s/gmsh.png


So I made the following.

I have attached both the actual svg files as well as a PNG exported to display it here for your convenience.
GDML_Tessellate_GDML_from_Shape_with_Gmsh.png
GDML_Tessellate_GDML_from_Shape_with_Gmsh.png (4.26 KiB) Viewed 2313 times
GDML_Tessellate_GDML_from_Shape_with_Gmsh.svg
(15.98 KiB) Downloaded 52 times
GDML_3D_volume_mesh_standard_light.png
GDML_3D_volume_mesh_standard_light.png (4.02 KiB) Viewed 2313 times
GDML_3D_volume_mesh_standard_light.svg
(17.89 KiB) Downloaded 63 times
I had looked to your FEM WB to see what you had done, you have that mesh icon with a "G" over it.

I wonder if you would like something similar...perhaps something like this...

FEM_MeshGmshFromShape.png
FEM_MeshGmshFromShape.png (3.57 KiB) Viewed 2313 times
FEM_MeshGmshFromShape.svg
(12.43 KiB) Downloaded 54 times
I am happy to do something else if you prefer, or leave it as you already have it.

Jim
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Re: A suggestion for a new FEM mesh GMsh icon

Post by RatonLaveur »

I think the idea is fine, i have no hound in this race, is Netgen used anyway?
I would suggest the latest logo you proposed except the gmesh icon would be exactly where the G used to be.
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bernd
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Re: A suggestion for a new FEM mesh GMsh icon

Post by bernd »

Jim, I am with you in the regard of letters in icons. I just had no better idea when I made the icons.

If we schange the we would need at least one for gmsh object and one for netgen mesh object.

Should we distinguish between gmsh mesh and gmsh fem mesh object ?!?
jmaustpc
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Re: A suggestion for a new FEM mesh GMsh icon

Post by jmaustpc »

RatonLaveur wrote: Sat Jul 18, 2020 7:44 pm I think the idea is fine, i have no hound in this race, is Netgen used anyway?
I would suggest the latest logo you proposed except the gmesh icon would be exactly where the G used to be.
one of those times when it sounds like a good idea, but when viewed at icon resolution it becomes to busy, hence hard to read. But still not a bad idea its mostly all the lines on the mesh that make it difficult to see. I had to add another copy coloured white underneath the Gmsh icon since my original had been partly transparent hence the yellow shod through originally. This is what it would look like...
FEM_MeshGmshFromShape_overlay.png
FEM_MeshGmshFromShape_overlay.png (4.48 KiB) Viewed 2222 times
FEM_MeshGmshFromShape_overlay.svg
(13.62 KiB) Downloaded 57 times

bernd wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2020 12:43 pm Jim, I am with you in the regard of letters in icons. I just had no better idea when I made the icons.

If we schange the we would need at least one for gmsh object and one for netgen mesh object.

Should we distinguish between gmsh mesh and gmsh fem mesh object ?!?
I'll have a look...back in a bit.
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Re: A suggestion for a new FEM mesh GMsh icon

Post by jmaustpc »

bernd wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2020 12:43 pm Jim, I am with you in the regard of letters in icons. I just had no better idea when I made the icons.
Honestly neither did I.
bernd wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2020 12:43 pm If we schange the we would need at least one for gmsh object and one for netgen mesh object.
I will just make another icon that uses a logo similar to the NetGen logo...although theirs is very complex. I will have a look at this over the next day or so, and see what I come up with.

But here I was thinking of the command icon, i.e. the tool bar icon for the tool to make a mesh using Gmsh or Netgen, as the tool to make the mesh but not for the mesh itself once created, for that I would suggest a different "tree view" icon for the mesh once it is created.
bernd wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2020 12:43 pm
Should we distinguish between gmsh mesh and gmsh fem mesh object ?!?
You mean for he treeview icon for the FEM mesh object once it's created?

I see that Gmsh and Netgen can create different types of meshes, I don't know if FreeCAD FEM WB uses all of those, does it?
2d surface triangular mesh
3dsurface triangular mesh
3d volume tetrahedron mesh
3d volume quadrilateral mesh, not sure about this one?

Is there a need to graphically differentiate different types of FEM meshes in the tree view icon or is just one generic FEM mesh icon adequate?


By the way, I noticed you appear to need an "electrical potential" icon for the tool bar, is that right, if so I have an idea, I'll post that shortly.

Jim
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Re: A suggestion for a new FEM mesh GMsh icon

Post by RatonLaveur »

There's even the option to create mesh regions and boundary layers although that last one does not seem to work at the moment.
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Re: A suggestion for a new FEM mesh GMsh icon

Post by johnwang »

Generally a letter is not good for a icon, but in this case, it is a mesh tool but uses two different programs. I know gmsh, so its logo means something to me. Never used netgen, so no idea what its logo looks like. So if you add netgen's logo onto the mesh tool icon, I'll first guess it as a new function.

I prefer there is a setting to choose which mesher to use, then no need to have two icons.
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Re: A suggestion for a new FEM mesh GMsh icon

Post by RatonLaveur »

I have maybe a disruptive question, since Meshing itself is a global concept why not have only one icon, and in the task pannel a drop down menu to select the desired type of mesher?
That would forgo the need for multiple icons for the same exclusive operation...what do you think?
If I'm right that's also bonus points for clarity in the GUI.
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Re: A suggestion for a new FEM mesh GMsh icon

Post by bernd »

RatonLaveur wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2020 9:45 am I have maybe a disruptive question, since Meshing itself is a global concept why not have only one icon, and in the task pannel a drop down menu to select the desired type of mesher?
That would forgo the need for multiple icons for the same exclusive operation...what do you think?
If I'm right that's also bonus points for clarity in the GUI.
Basically you are totally right. Eventually it just needs someone who implements this. Some history might be helpful:

Netgen FEM mesher has there right from the beginning of FEM, coded in 2013 git commit 2818bc4ddf9 in C++ (both the object and the task panel)

But it did not fulfill most needs. Furthermore if compiling FreeCAD with Netgen could be tricky at some point. From time to time it was broken in various builds to download. Thus some people started to use gmsh mesher. User psicofil came up with a macro to use Gmsh mesher for FEM meshes and for Mesh meshes (Macro_GMSH). I improved the macro. At one point I dicided to integrate the gmsh FEM mesher as an own object in FreeCAD FEM. Codeing this in C++ together in conjuction with Netgen as you suggested here would have taken me ages thus I decided to go for a new Python object and for a new task panel. This was back in 2016 git commit c3df2e298d56
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Re: A suggestion for a new FEM mesh GMsh icon

Post by RatonLaveur »

Perhaps my understanding of coding is faulty, but since both buttons in GUI can be called, my suggestion would entail "only" to create a single button with the mesh icon, and inside that task pannel it would call either the Gmsh or Netgen button. If you look at CfdOF implementation of multiple meshers it's rather intuitive and the number of buttons for a single analysis is nicely low. (Gmesh, snappyHexMesh and cfMesh).

Alternatively the single button would generate a macro type popup saying "Mesh with gmsh" or "Mesh with Netgen" there could even be a simple text explanation of each saying where they excel.

Or even more drastic perhaps, if we feel like Netgen is slightly deprecated due to an increasingly better Gmesh implemention, the decision could be made that meshing is made by default with gmesh (single GUI buttong) while Netgen remains accessible behind the scenes (in the FEM menu or backend only through Python command line).
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