Evaluation of user-guided semi-automatic decomposition tool for hexahedral mesh generation

Volumetric decomposition is essential for all-hexahedral mesh generation. Because fully automatic decomposition methods that can generate high-quality hexahedral meshes for arbitrary volumes have yet to be realized, manual decomposition is still required frequently. Manual decomposition is a laborious process and requires a high level of user expertise. Therefore, a user-guided semi-automatic tool to reduce the human effort and lower the requirement of expertise is necessary. To date, only a few of these approaches have been proposed, and a lack of user evaluation makes it difficult to improve upon this approach. Based on our previous work, we present a user evaluation of a user-guided semi-automatic tool that provides visual guidance to assist users in determining decomposition solutions, accepts sketch-based inputs to create decomposition surfaces, and simplifies the decomposition commands. This user evaluation investigated (1) the usability of the visual guidance, (2) the types of visual guidance essential for decomposition, (3) the effectiveness of the sketch-based decomposition, and (4) the performance differences between beginner and experienced users using the sketch-based decomposition. The result and user feedback indicate that the tool enables users who have limited prior experience or familiarity with the computer-aided engineering software to perform volumetric decomposition more efficiently. The visual guidance increases the success rate of the user's decomposition solution by 28%. The sketch-based decomposition significantly reduces 46% of the user's time on creating decomposition surfaces and setting up decomposition commands. Highlights Evaluations of the user-guided semi-automatic decomposition tool were performed. The visual guidance lowers the required user's expertise level. Sweeping schemes and sweepable regions are essential visual guidance to guide users. The sketch-based decomposition significantly reduces time cost and human efforts.