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nTop Platform 2.10 - What's New

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Andrew Sartorelli

Summary

nTopology’s nTop Platform 2.10 is here! This release features a powerful enhancement to our high resolution render feature, new mass property blocks for meshes, and new simulation boundary condition blocks for radiation and convection. In addition, there are a handful of awesome new usability improvements, such as more informative block messaging and customizable settings for the viewport grid and ruler. As with every release, nTopology’s dedicated support team is ready to answer your questions.

New Features and Improvements

Customizable Grid Options

  • Users can now easily customize the size, spacing, and subdivisions of the viewport grid by selecting View > Display Settings from the overhead menu.
  • From this window, users will have the ability to:
    • Turn the visibility on and off.
    • Adjust the Size (mm)
    • Adjust the Primary Spacing (mm)
    • Adjust the Subdivisions per cell

CustomizableGridDisplay.png

Customizable Ruler Options

  • Users can now easily customize the Ruler settings by selecting View > Display Settings from the overhead menu.
  • From this window, users will have the ability to:
    • Turn the visibility on and off.
    • Adjust the Orientation:
      • Top of UI
      • Bottom of UI
    • Adjust the Alignment:
      • 0 mm aligned to the left of the UI
      • 0 mm aligned to the right of the UI
      • 0 mm aligned to the center of the UI

High Resolution Render

  • We’ve made significant improvements to our High Resolution Render, which can be activated by selecting the object you wish to render and then selecting View > High-Res Render from the overhead menu. In a matter of seconds, a crisp static image of your geometry will appear. See a real time video below:
  • Alternatively, you can select the object and then select the hotkey combination Ctrl+H.
  • If you move your camera position, the high resolution render will cancel and your geometry will be visualized at the level of resolution set in the resolution menu at the bottom right of the viewport.

HighResolutionRender.gifBlock Messages

  • We’ve updated the warnings across the block system to provide users with more informative messages about why a block has not run. Below is an outline of all the new changes and warnings:
    • The “Alert” title has been changed to “Unbuilt Block”
    • If Autobuild is off:
      • “Turn on Autobuild to run block”
    • If Queued:
      • “Queued block - Notebook building in progress”
    • If All inputs empty:
      • “Provide required inputs to run block”
    • If Some inputs are empty:
      • “Provide required inputs to run block” (a line of text for each input is listed)
      • “[Input name]: Empty input”
    • If Inputs with unrun/error blocks in them:
      • “[Input name]: [object name] output is empty

Mass Properties & Surface Area from Mesh Blocks

  • Mass Properties from Mesh

    • Description: Calculate mass properties from a mesh.
    • Input 1: Mesh (type: Mesh, description: The mesh.)
    • Input 2: Density (type: scalar|scalar field, description: The density of the component.)
    • Output: Mass Properties

  • Surface Area from Mesh

    • Description: Calculate the surface area of an open or closed mesh.
    • Input 1: Mesh (type: Mesh, description: The mesh.)
    • Output: Scalar - length^2

Radiation and Convection Boundary Condition Blocks

  • Convection Boundary Load

    • Description: Applies a radiation load to the face of specified elements.
    • Input 1: Boundary (type: FE Boundary, description: The region of elements the load will be applied to.)
    • Input 2: Ambient Temperature (type: Scalar | Scalar Field, description: The temperature of the fluid medium surrounding the boundary.)
    • Input 3: Convection Coefficient (type: Scalar | Scalar Field, description: Heat transfer coefficient that relates temperature difference to heat flux for convection.)
    • Output: FE Heat Flux

  • Radiation Boundary Load

    • Description: Applies a radiation load to the face of specified elements.
    • Input 1: Boundary (type: FE Boundary, description: The region of elements the load will be applied to.)
    • Input 2: Ambient Temperature (type: Scalar | Scalar Field, description: The temperature of the fluid medium surrounding the boundary.)
    • Input 3: Emissivity (type: Scalar | Scalar Field, description: “Non-dimensional measure of the ability of the object to emit radiation energy.
    • Output: FE Heat Flux

Usage Improvements

  • All beta blocks in nTop Platform have been promoted.
  • Mesh to Implicit auto-casting has been disabled to improve performance across the system.
  • The Body Mass Properties type has been renamed to Mass Properties.
  • The Evaluate Field block now contains a Vector Field overload.
  • The following blocks have been deprecated and contain the following message:
    • Import Tet Mesh: This block has been deprecated. This method of Tet Mesh import is no longer supported.
    • Extract Surface from CAD Body: This block has been deprecated. Please use the List Element block and use the CAD Body’s ‘Faces’ Property, or access the individual face directly through the properties.
  • Split and Filter Mesh blocks now handle quad-based meshes.
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