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nTop Platform 2.25 - What's New

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Cayleigh McCreight

nTopology nTop Platform 2.25 is here! This release features some great new features such as the round, floor, and ceiling blocks, the ability to construct a single mesh face, and a ray cast block for projecting a point along a vector. In addition, this release features several usability improvements such as tooltips for autocasting, links between blocks and documentation to increase your knowledge about a block’s usage and functionality, and improved colors in both dark and light themes. 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.

Ceiling, Floor, and Round Blocks

  • Ceiling
    • Location: Math > Utilities
    • Description: Map a value to the least increment of an interval that is greater than or equal to the value.
    • Input 01: Value
      • Type: Scalar, Scalar Field
      • Description: The value to convert by way of the Ceiling function.
    • Input 02: Interval
      • Type: Scalar, Scalar Field
      • Description: The increment of the Ceiling function.
    • Return Type: Scalar, Scalar Field
  • Floor
    • Location: Math > Utilities
    • Description: Map a value to the greatest increment of an interval less than or equal to the value.
    • Input 01: Value
      • Type: Scalar, Scalar Field
      • Description: The value to convert by way of the Floor function.
    • Input 02: Interval
      • Type: Scalar, Scalar Field
      • Description: The increment of the Floor function.
    • Return Type: Scalar, Scalar Field
  • Round
    • Location: Math > Utilities
    • Description: Map a value by either rounding up to the smallest increment of an interval that is not less than the value or by rounding down to the largest increment of an interval that is not greater than the value.
    • Input 01: Value
      • Type: Scalar, Scalar Field
      • Description: The value to convert by way of the Round function.
    • Input 02: Interval
      • Type: Scalar, Scalar Field
      • Description: The increment of the Round function.
    • Return Type: Scalar, Scalar Field

Create Single Face Mesh Block (Beta)

  • Location: Modeling - Utilities > Beta
  • Description: Creates a mesh composed of a single face from a list of given points.
  • Input 01: Points
    • Type: Point List
    • Description: An ordered list of face vertices. Currently, lists of size 3 and 4 are supported.
  • Return Type: Mesh

Extended Block Documentation Links

  • You can now learn more about a block via the “Learn More” button in the information panel of a block. The “Learn More” button takes you to our extended block documentation. Below is an example:

LearnMore2.png

  • Note: Not all blocks have extended block documentation yet and as a result, the “Learn More” button will not be available.
  • The following blocks currently have extended block documentation:
    • Boolean Intersect
    • Boolean Subtract
    • Boolean Union
    • Box from Corners
    • Cellular Noise 3D
    • Clearance
    • Export Mesh
    • Extrusion Constraint
    • FE Component
    • FE Boundary by Flood Fill
    • FE Model
    • FE Volume Mesh
    • Force
    • Frame
    • Import Scalar Point Map
    • Offset Body
    • Ramp
    • Shell
    • Simplex Noise 3D
    • Simplify Mesh by Amount
    • Simplify Mesh by Threshold
    • Slice Lattice
    • Static Analysis
    • Thicken Body
    • Topology Optimization

Ray Cast Block (Beta)

  • Location: Modeling - Utilities > Beta
  • Description: Create a ray to a voxel grid.
  • Input 01: Grid
    • Type: Voxel Grid
    • Description: The voxel grid to ray cast.
  • Input 02: Point
    • Type: Point
    • Description: The origin of the ray to intersect with the voxel grid.
  • Input 03: Direction
    • Type: Vector
    • Description: The direction of the rays to intersect with the voxel grid.
  • Return Type: Point

Type Autocasting Tooltips

  • We’ve enhanced our tooltips to help you better understand the types you are working with and how they autocast. Hover your mouse over a block’s type Icon and a tooltip will appear indicating the current type. If the block is nested within another block, the tooltip will display the block’s output type as well as the type that it has been converted to by way of nesting. Lastly, view the information panel of a block to see all the different types the output can be converted to. See examples below:

Tooltips.png

Usage Improvements

  • We’ve updated the Type colors in both Dark and Light themes to improve readability and the overall user experience.
  • Updated Geometry Error Messages
    • Skewed Box
      • Current Message: “Box violates right-hand rule; swap two axes to fix.”
      • New Message: “The axes you provided violate the right-hand rule. Please try swapping the two axes to address the issue.”
    • CAD from Mesh
      • Current Message: “The input mesh must be manifold.”
      • New Message: “Expecting a manifold mesh, the surface mesh that you provided is not manifold. Please visit support.ntopology.com for techniques to generate a manifold mesh.”
    • Closest Point
      • Current Message: “Could not find closest point via descent.”
      • New Message: “Closest point information could not be found for the specified tolerance. Increasing the tolerance may help but may reduce the accuracy of the result.”
    • Frame
      • Current Message: “Axes cannot be parallel.”
      • New Message: “The given “X-axis” and “Y-axis” were found to be parallel. Please adjust one of these two inputs so that they are not parallel.”
    • Implicit Body from Voxel Grid
      • Current Message: “Empty voxel body.”
      • New Message: “Expecting input “Voxel grid” to contain a non-zero number of voxels, however, the number of voxels is zero. Please adjust the voxel grid generation in the preceding block.”
    • Import Part
      • Current Message: “Failed to load interop plugin.”
      • New Message: “The CAD interoperability libraries were unable to be located. Please try reinstalling the application or contact support through support.ntopology.com.”
    • Import Part
      • Current Message: “Unable to locate Parasolid 'Schemas' directory.”
      • New Message: “Error occurred when loading the CAD interoperability libraries for Parasolid. Please contact nTopology Support by visiting support.ntopology.com.”
    • Mesh from Implicit Body
      • Current Message: “Empty mesh produced.”
      • New Message: “Expecting to produce a mesh that contains faces. The “Feature size” you provided results in no faces and creates an empty mesh. Please adjust the feature size to a smaller value.”
    • Plane
      • Current Message: “Axes cannot be parallel.”
      • New Message: “The given “X-axis” and “Y-axis” were found to be parallel. Please adjust one of these two inputs so that they are not parallel.”
    • Point Map
      • Current Message: “Point list size must match value list size.”
      • New Message: “Expecting “Values” list to be of equal length as “Points” list, but you provided lists that are not of the same length. Please adjust the number of entities in each so that they are of equal size.”

Bug Fixes

  • Export FE Volume Mesh has been updated to prevent unexpected exits while using the “right click - export” option.
  • Export Slice no longer creates files when the block errors out.

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