Hex Me If You Can

TL;DR

HEXME provides a comprehensive, standardized dataset of tetrahedral meshes derived from diverse CAD models, facilitating fair evaluation and advancement of hexahedral meshing algorithms through an automated, extensible workflow.

Contribution

This work introduces the HEXME dataset and workflow, enabling consistent benchmarking of hexahedral meshing techniques with a focus on challenging CAD models.

Findings

189 tetrahedral meshes generated from 63 CAD models

Meshes categorized into simple, nasty, and industrial types

Open-source workflow and dataset for community use

Abstract

HEXME consists of tetrahedral meshes with tagged features, and of a workflow to generate them. The main purpose of HEXME meshes is to enable consistent and fair evaluation of hexahedral meshing algorithms and related techniques. The tetrahedral meshes have been generated with Gmsh, starting from 63 computer-aided design (CAD) models coming from various databases. To highlight and label the various and challenging aspects of hexahedral mesh generation, the CAD models are classified into three categories: simple, nasty and industrial. For each CAD model, we provide three kinds of tetrahedral meshes. The mesh generation yielding those 189 tetrahedral meshes is defined thanks to Snakemake, a modern workflow management system, which allows us to define a fully automated, extensible and sustainable workflow. It is possible to download the whole dataset or to pick some meshes by browsing the online catalog. Since there is no doubt that the hexahedral meshing techniques are going to progress, the HEXME dataset is also built with evolution in mind. A public GitHub repository hosts the HEXME workflow, in which external contributions and future releases are possible and encouraged.