Verification and Testing > Mesh Density Accuracies

4 Mesh Density Accuracies

The following plot shows the error in displacement for a range of Density and Max Dist., Edge to Surf values, using the default sailboat hull from the Sailboat Hull Assistant, with a length of 10 meters. This hull is especially sensitive to these settings, because it has a relatively sparse control net and a lot of curvature (hulls like the Planing Hull Assistant hull or the Ship Hull Assistant hull which have less curvature, or hulls created with Rhino's loft command and will therefore have many more control points, will not be as sensitive).

In the plot, the value of 0.01 for Max Dist. is equivalent to leaving that value at 0, since the Density setting implies a finer mesh. Note that once the Max Dist. value gets down to 1 mm, the error is insensitive to the Density setting, since the Max Dist. values implies a finer mesh than the Density setting. With Max Dist. effectively "turned off" (left at 0, or set to a high value such as 0.01), the results are sensitive to the Density setting. The default Density setting in Orca3D is 1, which gives very good results. If you would like to increase the speed of the calculations, and are willing to accept a somewhat less accurate result, you can decrease the Density setting.

The following plots show the reduction in percent error for various parameters as the Orca3D mesh density is increased for basic shapes. The cube is not included in the plots since the accuracy is not affected by lower mesh densities.

Figure 4.1 Sphere Mesh Density Accuracy

Figure 4.2 Vertical Cylinder Mesh Density Accuracy

Figure 4.3 Cone Mesh Density Accuracy

Figure 4.4 Horizontal Cylinder Density Accuracy