An interactive structured grid generation application that facilitates the construction of complex, discretized, simulation models directly from the original CAD geometry specifications is presented. The application, named Rigel, reads physical model descriptions generated by modern CAD packages. Rigel includes a suite of interactive geometry editing functions to assist the user in the construction of a topologically correct geometry from the original CAD specification. Once a topologically correct geometry is created, an interactively steered grid generation capability is provided to facilitate the construction of an appropriate discretization for the simulation. Grid quality enhancement is supported with the application of user-directed elliptic smoothing, refinement, and coarsening operators. After a grid is completed, various output filters are supplied to write an input file for the target simulation code. This paper is intended to provide an overview of the mechanics of this process and to highlight some of the novel algorithms and techniques employed
