Meshing takes long time - how can I check which geometry it's at?

[CDDK]

I'm meshing the model. Admittedly, it might be a little complicated, as I have transition from very small geometry (a few mm) to about 100 times that size and I don't need all the elements to be that small. I'm using Contact Sizing in the area I'm interested to be as much as the small elements. An additional thing is that I'm also using Multizone, as I want a hexa mesh, as it's for mechanical, and the geometries are mostly cylindrical.
So it's taking a bit of time. The meshing info window gets "stuck" at "Generating Mesh for Geometry" - "Modelling edges for part".
I have already updated solver process settings to use all my available cores.

Checking SHARCnet, and ansys Help for mesh troubleshooting I found it says "While the mesher is working at certain points it will highlight topology (edges, faces, bodies). If the mesher gets stuck for a long time on a particular topology, you should inspect the highlighted topology and possibly merge it with another topology using virtual cells, or adjust the mesh sizes in that area".

Can anyone explain how the highlighted topology is shown? That way I hope I could identify what's causing the bottleneck in meshing. Similarly, is there a way to tell how far the meshing has come, which part it's working at now or other such details?

 

[Erik Panos Kostson]

In the workbench meshing status window that appears when you mesh, it is has a box that says highlighted and should be ticked. The faces/volumes that are being meshed are then highlighted and you can see them in your window. See image.

 

[CDDK]

@Erik Panos Kostson,
Thank you very much for your help and this advice. Unfortunately, I cannot see the "highlight" box in my meshing status window, as you can see:

.

I have Ansys 16.1, does that make a difference?

Again, many thanks for your help!

 

[Erik Panos Kostson]

Could be. It seems that this option came out in 17.Link