---
name: "tetgen"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "tetgen"
version: "1.5.0-5+b2"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/tetgen"
---

# tetgen(1)

A Quality Tetrahedral Mesh Generator

## NAME

tetgen — A Quality Tetrahedral Mesh Generator

## SYNOPSIS

**tetgen** \[**-pq\_\_a\_\_AriYMS\_\_T\_\_dzjo\_fengGOJBNEFICQVvh**\]  file

## DESCRIPTION

This manual page documents briefly the  **tetgen** command. Full documentation is available  online: http://tetgen.berlios.de/

**tetgen**  generates the Delaunay tetrahedralization, Voronoi diagram, and convex  hull for three-dimensional point sets, generates the constrained Delaunay  tetrahedralizations and quality tetrahedral meshes for three-dimensional  domains with piecewise linear boundary.

## OPTIONS

A summary of  options is included below.  For a complete description, see the  online documentation.

- **-p**

  Tetrahedralizes a picecwise linear complex (.poly or .smesh file).

- **-q**

  Quality mesh generation. A minimum radius-edge ratio may be specifyed  (default 2.0).

- **-a**

  Applies a maximum tetrahedron volume constraint.

- **-A**

  Assigns attributes to identify tetrahedra in certain regions.

- **-r**

  Reconstructs/Refines a previously generated mesh.

- **-Y**

  Suppresses boundary facets/segments splitting.

- **-i**

  Inserts a list of additional points into mesh.

- **-M**

  Does not merge coplanar facets.

- **-T**

  Set a tolerance for coplanar test (default 1e-8).

- **-d**

  Detect intersections of PLC facets.

- **-z**

  Numbers all output items starting from zero.

- **-j**

  Jettison unused vertices from output .node file.

- **-o2**

  Generates second-order subparametric elements.

- **-f**

  Outputs faces (including non-boundary faces) to .face file.

- **-e**

  Outputs subsegments to .edge file.

- **-n**

  Outputs tetrahedra neighbors to .neigh file.

- **-g**

  Outputs mesh to .mesh file for viewing by Medit.

- **-G**

  Outputs mesh to .msh file for viewing by Gid.

- **-O**

  Outputs mesh to .off file for viewing by Geomview.

- **-B**

  Suppresses output of boundary information.

- **-N**

  Suppresses output of .node file.

- **-E**

  Suppresses output of .ele file.

- **-F**

  Suppresses output of .face file.

- **-I**

  Suppresses mesh iteration numbers.

- **-C**

  Checks the consistency of the final mesh.

- **-Q**

  Quiet: No terminal output except errors.

- **-V**

  Verbose: Detailed information on what I'm doing.

- **-v**

  Prints the version information.

- **-h**

  Help: A brief instruction for using TetGen.

## EXAMPLES

The wing is described in two files: wing.node and wing.poly.  The command line:

tetgen -pq wing

generates the quality mesh in three files:  wing.1.node, wing.1.ele, and wing.1.face.

Default, the radius-edge ratio of each tetrahedron is bounded below 2.0.  You can impose a tight bound by adding a number directly after the '-q'  switch. Like this:

tetgen -pq1.2 wing

generates a quality mesh which have more points  inserted than the mesh created in above.

See http://tetgen.berlios.de/switches.examples.html for more examples.

## SEE ALSO

netgen (1)

## AUTHOR

This manual page was written by Ondrej Certik \<ondrej@certik.cz\> for  the **Debian** system (but may be used by others).  Permission is  granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under  the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 2 any   later version published by the Free Software Foundation.

On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public  License can be found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL.