nTop Platform 2.02 - What's New

Summary

nTopology’s nTop Platform 2.2 is here! This release features exciting new user interface updates including the ability to personalize the ribbon, block version information, better commenting features, and a new field viewer probe enabling users to query field values in real time with a mouse. We’ve also updated our Import Part block functionality to improve the ease of use when importing and using CAD parts containing single or multiple CAD bodies. In addition, this release includes new voxel grid blocks, the ability to slice unthickened beam lattices, and a new conformal lattice Isogrid type.

New Features and Improvements

Block Versioning

  • All native nTop Platform blocks now contain versioning, which enables the user to switch between older and newer versions, if available. In the event that a block’s structure or underlying algorithm changes, old files will continue to use the older version. The user can then decide if they want to update the block manually.
  • To access a block’s version, select the question mark icon located in the upper right corner and scroll to the bottom of the information panel to the version dropdown menu.

blockversioning.png

Commenting feature updates

  • We’ve improved our commenting feature for blocks to include the following:
    • A dropdown arrow to expand and collapse text, which appears once text extends beyond 3 lines.
    • A scroll bar for text that extends beyond 30 lines

commenting.png

Field value probe

  • You can now see the individual values of a field by enabling the “Probe Values” checkbox in the field viewer and hovering your mouse over the visible field.
  • To access the Field Viewer either right click the block containing the field to view and select “Field Viewer” from the menu or select the block and press the hotkey “F”.

probevalues.png

Hide and order tabs in the Ribbon

  • You can now hide and unhide tabs in the ribbon by going to File > Settings > Ribbon and enabling the visibility by checking or disabling the visibility by unchecking.
  • You can also rearrange the order in which they appear from left to right by selecting the up or down arrow.
  • Once you are ready to commit your changes, select Apply and then OK.

customizeribbon.png

Import Part update

  • The Import Part block has been updated so that it can no longer be added to the input of others blocks, without explicitly extracting the CAD Body or Bodies as variables.
  • In previous versions, the Imported Part block could serve as the input to another block, but this would spawn a list of outputs, which was causing issues in downstream processes.

Isogrid in the circumferential direction

  • We have introduced a new conformal lattice option for Isogrids called “Triangular Honeycomb Rotated”. This new unit type is available in the Conformal Lattice between CAD Faces and the Conformal Lattice from CAD Face blocks. Below is an image of the new Isogrid lattice.

newisogridoption.png

Offset & Smoothen Voxel Grid blocks

  • We’ve introduced two new voxel grid blocks: Offset Voxel Grid and Smoothen Voxel Grid. Below are their descriptions and inputs:
    • Offset Voxel Grid: Apply an offset to the narrow band of a voxel grid.
      • Grid: The voxel grid to offset.
      • Distance: The amount to offset the voxel grid in world space. A positive value will offset inward while a negative value will offset outward.
    • Smoothen Voxel Grid: Apply a filtering function to smoothen a voxel grid.
      • Grid: The voxel grid to smoothen.
      • Filter: The smoothening method to use.
      • Iterations: The number of filter iterations to apply.
      • Width: The width of the filter kernel in voxel units. This value is only used for the Gaussian, Median, and Mean techniques.

Slice directly from an unthickened lattice

  • Users can now slice unthickened beam based lattices directly.
  • This gives users slices that are composed of points that represent the beam instead of contours.
  • This enables users to control beam thickness by modifying the laser parameters as an alternative to creating thickened geometry.

sliceunthickenedlattice.png

Usage Improvements

  • Closest Point block now works inside of an object.
  • Frame input in the Remote Point Force and Moment blocks has been corrected.
  • New descriptions are available for the Remap blocks located in the field tab.
  • Box: Changed input name order to say Length, Width, Height. The first input maps to the x-axis while the second maps to the y-axis.
  • Extrude renamed to Extrude Profile
  • Loft renamed to Loft between Profiles
  • Revolve renamed to Revolve Profile
  • Sweep renamed to Sweep Profile
  • Twisted Sweep renamed to Twisted Sweep Profile
  • Mix has been moved to move to Math/Utilities
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