nTopology 3.36 is here! This release comes with two new features Direct Custom Block Creation, allowing you to create Custom Blocks directly in your instance, and Split Text block to split a single text object into a list of text. Scroll down to read the Block Updates and Bug Fixes section for quality of life improvements. 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.
Direct Custom Block Creation
- We made enhancements to make Custom Blocks more accessible, allowing you to create Custom Blocks directly in your nTopology instance. In addition, the Imported Blocks menu now resides in the Imports tab of the left-hand sidebar instead of in a pop-up window to the right of the notebook.
What it does:
- Once you select “Create New Custom Block” in the imports tab of the left-hand sidebar, it will bring you inside a new notebook where you can create your Custom Block. Once created, you can select the “Back” icon, and so long as your Custom Block is valid, it will be automatically added to the original notebook.
Tips:
- All Custom Blocks created within a nTopology file are internalized - changes will only be reflected in the currently open file. If you want the Custom Block to be externalized, export the Custom Block to a directory and import it into other files.
Split Text Block
What it does
- Splits a single text object into a list of text objects based on a delimiting string, character, or string of delimiters.
Common uses
- File path manipulation, general text string manipulation.
Inputs* * Text (Text) : Text object to split * Delimiter (Text): The character or string used to split the text object. * Split by each (Bool): Option to split text around each character contained in Delimiter.
Output: Text List.
Usage Improvements
- Tooltip hints show when hovering over block input icons and when the block object text is cut off.
Block Updates
- We released a new version of the Mesh from Implicit Body block and deprecated version 2.2.0. In version 2.3.0, we fixed an issue that wasn’t correctly preserving sharp features when the Sharpen input was clicked and created jagged edges. This happened for large meshes with bounding boxes at or over 2.5 meters x 2.5 meters in size or for meshes of any size that were 2.5 meters or more away from the origin. We also fixed an issue causing the self-intersection warning to show even when the result did not have self-intersecting elements.
- We moved the Triangulate Mesh block out of beta. Its new ribbon location is Modeling > Utilities > Triangulate Mesh.
- We moved Implicit Body from CAD Body version 1.2.0 out of beta. Version 1.1.0 is deprecated due to a bug that produced inaccurate gradients. It can be found in the ribbon under Utilities > Conversion > Implicit Body from CAD Body.
- We released a new version of the Closest Point to Body block into beta. The beta version 1.2.0 is more accurate and will work better for TPMS lattices and any Implicit Body or lattice that has gone through a trimming or boolean operation.
Bug Fixes
- We fixed an issue causing nTopology to unexpectedly exit when you try to open a new notebook while editing a processing Custom Block.
- We fixed an issue causing changes made during Custom Block editing to be lost if you select "Undo" and then select "Back."
- We fixed an issue with the "Change Block Overload" tooltip displaying in the incorrect location on a block.
- We fixed an issue where dragging a block into a collapsed section does not indicate that the block is in the collapsed section.
- We fixed an issue with Topology Optimization with multiple responses that share a common load case that failed to execute when the boundary conditions in the load case were applied directly on CAD's faces.
- We fixed an issue that caused 2D Implicit Bodies to flicker and disappear at certain angles when panning around in the scene.
- We fixed an issue causing nTop to unexpectedly exit if you input a (0,0,0) Point block into the Array Body block with the Spacing input set to (1mm, 0mm, 0mm).
- We fixed an issue causing nTop to unexpectedly exit when converting an Implicit Body to a CAD Body using the CAD from Implicit Body (Beta) block if the body was very thin with large flat regions.
- We fixed an issue that misordered the Principal axes in the Mass Properties from Meshblock. The results are now in descending order, matching common CAD systems such as Siemens NX.
- We fixed an issue with CAD translation errors when running multiple Import Part blocks at the same time.