Understanding the role of partitions

As you proceed through the modeling process, you may find that you need to select a particular region that does not exist in your model. Such regions might be used to define material boundaries, indicate the location of loads and constraints, and help refine your mesh. You use the Partition toolset to partition your model into regions.

Partitions can be created on edges, faces, and cells. A partition along an edge creates a new vertex, while partitions through faces and cells create new edges and faces, respectively. In all cases, partitioning serves to subdivide the geometry being partitioned. Figure 1 illustrates partitioning an edge, a face, and a cell.

Figure 1. Partitioning an edge, a face, and a cell.

You partition edges, faces, and cells by defining partitions that refer to existing geometry. You can partition a part in either the Part module or the Property module, or you can partition an assembly in the modules that operate on the assembly. For example, you can partition a face of the assembly in the Mesh module, and you can seed the resulting internal edge to refine your mesh. A partition is a feature; and, like all features, it can be edited, deleted, suppressed, resumed, and queried. Similarly, a partition is regenerated when the assembly or a part is regenerated.