nTopology 3.35 is here! This release features updates to the Voronoi Volume Lattice block that runs faster than the earlier version, “Halt Process” option to stop a running Topology Optimization and keep the results till the last completed iteration and an added ‘Start angle’ input to the Hatching blocks. As with every release, nTopology’s dedicated support team is ready to answer your questions. Please visit support.ntopology.com to gain access to helpful tutorials and support articles.
Usage Improvements
- Cut/Copy and Paste along with the Duplicate commands no longer suffix the “_copy” in the Object Name and will increment the suffixed number.
Block Updates
- We released a new version of the Voronoi Volume Lattice block. The algorithm in version 1.1.0 was enhanced to run significantly faster when an optional Surface Mesh is provided. The increase in speed will depend on your model. The optional mesh input is now a Surface Mesh. If you previously used a Volume Mesh, you can safely update the block, and the Volume Mesh will auto-convert to a Surface Mesh for you.
Figure 1. The lattice in the image above now generates in 4 seconds, compared to 90 seconds in block version 1.0.0 – a 22.5x increase.
- We released a new version of the Surface Area from Body block. Version 1.1.0 is deprecated due to a bug that produced inaccurate results. Additionally, the inaccuracy increased as the model size increased. This is fixed in version 1.2.0.
- We have added a new context menu option for Topology Optimization blocks. "Halt Process" (1) will stop a running Topology Optimization and keep the results of the last completed iteration. When exercising this option, the "Max iterations" input (2) will be overwritten with the last completed iteration, the block will be marked as successfully built, and you can access all the associated properties. If you want to restart the optimization, you have the option to use the density property from the halted block into the "Initial density" input field of the Topology Optimization block intended for the restart (3). This will utilize a shape from the halted iteration that is very close to the optimized result for the restart.
Figure 2. The image shows (1) “Halt Process” from the menu, which can be accessed by right-clicking the Topology Optimization blocks, (2) Maximum iterations: input is updated after the “Halt Process” is completed, and (3) shows hows to access the density input and use it to restart the optimization process.
- We have added a new optional input, ‘Start angle:’ to Hatch, Hatch with Islands, and Hatch with Stripes blocks. The default ‘Start angle:’ will be 0 degrees, providing the same behavior as earlier. However, you can now start from the angle of your choice, and this could be useful when you slice high-complexity part designs by slicing different sections at a time.
Figure 3. The above image shows an Implicit cube hatched with different start angle inputs.
Bug Fixes
- We fixed an issue where sometimes entering values in a vector caused nTopology to exit unexpectedly.
- We fixed an issue with geometry being selected in the viewport, not cross-highlighting the corresponding variable block in the notebook.
- We fixed an issue with the context search of some variables not working correctly.
- We fixed an issue where copy and pasting Custom Blocks with optional inputs between nTopology instances would not work.
- We fixed an issue with graph lattices that were causing an error in the Implicit Body. The issues with the implicit field caused abnormal rendering artifacts and blocks evaluating the field, such as Closest Point to Body and Mesh from Implicit Body, to fail. This issue occurred if the lattice had degenerate elements, such as a beam with the same start and end point. In 3.35, lattices with these beams will still have a correct Implicit Body field.