Automeshing
Meshing 2D AutoCAD drawings
You can use AutoCAD to lay-out a coarse mesh of quadrilateral & triangle elements which can then be loaded into LISA and refined into a finer mesh using LISA's meshing tools. From the download section of the website you may download a package with the required autolisp files and a readme.doc file with the instructions on preparing AutoCAD drawings for use with the LISA program. Arrays are supported.
Meshing 3D STEP & IGES CAD models
Step & iges CAD files can be imported into LISA which uses NetGen to automesh them during the import process.
Pre-processor
2D triangle mesher
The polyline tool in the mouse menu can be used to sketch 2D profiles. The sketch can be with or without holes and can be graded (varying element sizes). After the sketch is made, the model menu-> 2D triangle mesher, will create a mesh of 3 node triangle elements, which can also be converted to 4 node elements if required, by using the change shape tool. There is also a facility to load a background bitmap image which can be used as a guide for making the sketches of the 2D profiles.
Importing COSMOS mesh files
Some CAD programs are able to generate an FE mesh from CAD models in a format for use with the COSMOS finite element analysis program. LISA has a COSMOS port by which data in the COSMOS file format can be loaded into LISA.