A new 3D grid can be created by right-clicking in the empty space of the Project Explorer and selecting the New -> 3D Grid command. This command brings up the Create Grid dialog.
By default, the rows, columns, and layers of 3D grids are aligned with the X, Y, and Z axes. However, grids can be rotated about the Z-axis, if desired. Thus, the information needed to determine the overall size and location of the grid is the XYZ coordinates of the lower left corner of the grid (the lower left corner prior to rotation), the length of the grid in the X, Y, and Z directions, and the rotation angle. The XYZ coordinates of the origin are entered in the Origin edit fields, the dimensions are entered in the Length fields, and the angle of rotation is entered in the field entitled Rotation about Z-axis.
Several options are available for defining the number and locations of the cell boundaries. A bias can be defined which controls how the cell size varies from one cell to the next. For example, an X bias of 1.5 will cause each cell to be 50% larger than the previous cell when moving in the positive X direction.
The total number of cells in each direction (number of rows, columns, or layers) can be defined by explicitly entering a number or by entering a base cell size and a limit cell size. The base and limit cell size options are used when a bias other than 1.0 is specified. The base cell size is the size of the first cell in the sequence. The cells are then generated by altering the cell size according to the bias until the limit cell size is reached. The remainder of the cells are constructed using the limit cell size.
The controls at the bottom of the Create Grid dialog are used to define the type and orientation of the grid. The user can specify whether the grid should be a mesh-centered grid or a cell-centered grid. The orientation of the ijk axes with respect to the XYZ axes can also be specified.
Related Links:
Creating and Editing 3D Grids