In 3DEC, a discontinuous medium is represented as an assemblage of discrete blocks. Boundaries between blocks are treated as discontinuities along which large displacements and rotations between blocks are allowed. Individual blocks can behave as deformable material, in which case the block is subdivided into a mesh of finite difference elements (i.e., continuous assemblages of zones).
Itasca CAD-based meshing tools allow you to build block models to input to 3DEC. Zoning of deformable blocks is usually done directly in 3DEC, automatically.
TYPE
TOOL
APPLICATION
MAIN ADVANTAGE
DESCRIPTION
Structured
Primitives Commands & FISH
Available from the command line
Any type of problem
Better suited for simple geometries
Can results in poor quality and heavy mesh for complex geometries
Efficiency
Includes tunnel primitive
Planar cuts commands can be used to intersect blocks with any number of planes
Includes cube command to generate a region based on a user-defined outline
FISH language can be used to automate planar cuts to construct the desired geometry (such as complex tunnel shapes, for example)
Structured
VRML to Block converter EXE
Executable requiring VRML input file
Any type of problem
Handles any closed convex volumes
Distributed free with3DEC
Efficiency
Quality
Uses common VRML CAD format
Allows automatically creation of blocks for import into3DEC based on closed convex volumes (input in VRML format)
Structured
Interactive BlockRanger
Available from the Rhino interface
Any type of problem
Better suited for simple to moderately complex geometries
Output of hex blocks (v1.2 and up) and tetrahedral blocks
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Upcoming Events
23Sep
Getting Started with FLAC2D/FLAC3D
This training is an introduction to continuous modeling with FLAC2D and FLAC3D. At the end of the course, participants will master the ...
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14Oct
Getting Started with 3DEC
Live Online Introductory Training Course.
October 14-15, 2025...
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