nTop 4.26 is here! This release features our new Slice Body by Marching Squares block that uses the marching squares algorithm and usage improvements. As with every release, nTop’s dedicated support team is ready to answer your questions. Please visit support.ntop.com to gain access to helpful tutorials and support articles.
Slice Body by Marching Squares
- The new Slice Body by Marching Squares block enables users who need to slice an Implicit Body using a large feature size for performance reasons but cannot tolerate occasional artifacts introduced by sharpening.
- Block Name: Slice Body by Marching Squares
- Location: Beta > Manufacturing
- Description: Create a stack of cross-sectional slices with even spacing between layers, oriented by a frame. The frame will act as the origin of the slice data. This block uses marching squares instead of dual contouring.
- Body: Implicit body to slice.
- Layer height: Spacing between slice layers.
- Feature size: Minimum feature size is needed to capture details accurately.
- Include negative Z: Option to include layers with negative Z values with respect to the frame, if any. By default, this block will slice only in the positive Z direction.
- Frame: Frame to orient the slicing and act as the origin of the slice data. If no frame is provided, the slices are generated from the origin and parallel to the XY plane in the positive Z direction.
- Output: Slice Stack
Usage Improvements
- We have updated the Min and Max in Point Map HUD to indicate the Maximum and Minimum values in the Point Map.
- We have improved the internal computation of the FE Boundary by Body and FE Region by Body blocks. In certain cases, the block will run much quicker, and files containing these blocks will open faster.
- We have added two additional graphs to our Topology Optimization results. You can view them by clicking the Right Side Panel > Display and locating the Plots section.
- Time per iteration/Total time for the optimization process
- Maximum design change through iterations.