nTopology 3.42 is here! This release features two of our new blocks. The Cylindrical Restraint (Beta) block enables users to apply boundary conditions in cylindrical directions, and Remap Constraint (Beta) block enforces multiple constraints in Topology Optimization. We also have a new Optimization ribbon to access all of the Optimization blocks easily. Scroll down to read more about all the features in detail. 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.

• Cylindrical Restraint (Beta)

• Remap Constraint (Beta)

• Optimization Ribbon

• Usage Improvements

• Bug Fixes

Cylindrical Restraint (Beta)

• The Cylindrical Restraint (Beta) block enables users to apply boundary conditions to their FE Models in the three cylindrical directions - axial, radial, and tangential. With this block, users can restrain using either an FE Boundary or a CAD face of the cylindrical surface. In both cases, the block automatically recognizes the surface's axis to provide users feedback about the cylindrical directions. Users can access the axis information in the block properties panel. Additionally, the user can give an axis as an axis input in the block, which acts as the reference for the cylindrical directions and will override the auto-axis recognition scheme. Users must toggle on the block visibility and select to visualize the axis.
• This block offers users an appropriate way to simulate mechanical components that are restrained in the axial, tangential, or radial directions, like bolts and hinges.
• Block Name: Cylindrical Restraint
• Location: Beta > Simulation
• Description: Restrains partial or complete cylindrical faces in the 3 cylindrical degrees of freedom. If an input is empty, the corresponding degree of freedom will be unrestrained.
  • Boundary: The boundary entities containing the nodes to restrain.
  • Radial: Restraint in the radial direction from the axis.
  • Tangential: Restraint in the tangential direction about the axis.
  • Axial: Restraint along the direction of the axis.
  • Axis: This is an optional entry for an axis that defines the cylindrical directions for the restraint.
  • Output: FE Cylindrical Restraint

Remap Constraint (Beta)

• Users can use the Remap Constraint (Beta) block to generate novel geometry with Topology Optimization in nTop. It enforces constraints on the design space by leveraging nTop's unique ability to manipulate scalar and vector fields. The block is named after the Remap Field block that follows a similar technique to perform geometric operations on implicit bodies like shape transformation, mirroring, sectioning, patterning, surface extrudes, and many more applications.
• The Remap Constraint (Beta) block creates geometric projections that constrain the density field of the design volume in an optimization problem to enforce constraints similar to the symmetry constraint, extrusion constraint, and pattern repetition constraint. Users can simultaneously implement these constraints to an optimization problem, a new capability in nTop.
• Block Name: Remap Constraint
• Location: Beta > Topology Optimization
• Description: Defines a geometric projection to be applied as a constraint to the optimization process. The projection will remap the design variable field to the X, Y, and Z scalar field components of the new evaluation location.
  • X: Field to evaluate for the X component of the new evaluation location.
  • Y: Field to evaluate for the Y component of the new evaluation location.
  • Z: Field to evaluate for the Z component of the new evaluation location.
  • Region: Region which the remap will be applied to. If unspecified, the constraint will be applied globally to all FE Components in the model.
  • Output: Optimization Constraint

Optimization ribbon

We have published a new Optimization ribbon in nTop to organize the blocks related to Topology Optimization. Here is a table summarizing the blocks that were updated in this process and their location on the new ribbon :

Usage Improvements

• A block’s context menu will disable “Make Model Input” when it cannot be made a model input due to containing references to other variables.

Bug Fixes

• We fixed an issue causing the Mesh from Implicit Body block to arbitrarily mesh one region of an Implicit Body if the model had inner and outer non-connected regions and artifacts in the body’s field from a previous Boolean operation.
• We fixed an issue with the Mesh Quality (Beta) block to correct the skewness values of elements reported by the block.
• We fixed an issue with the Orient Object block receiving an error when using a scalar field as an input.
• We fixed an issue causing nTopology to unexpectedly exit when pressing the “s” hotkey after selecting the “+” for context search.