nTopology nTop Platform 2.23 is here! This release gives you the ability to store and load all of your custom blocks from one location. In addition, 2.23 features automatic block overload detection, six new lattice beam filters, more informative unit error messages, ribbon tooltips for a better learning experience, and CAD color properties for coordinating CAD data in automation workflows. 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.
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Automatic Overload Detection
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Color Property for CAD Bodies and Faces
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Informative Unit Error Messages
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Lattice Pipeline Filter Blocks (Beta)
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Local Repository for Your Custom Blocks
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Ribbon Tooltips
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Usage Improvements
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Bug Fixes
Automatic Overload Detection
- We’ve introduced a new feature that automatically selects the correct overload of a block based on the type of inputs you provide. See a gif of this awesome new detection feature below:
Color Property for CAD Bodies and Faces
- We’ve introduced a new Color property to CAD Bodies and Faces that enables you to capture metadata in your automation workflows to coordinate between different CAD Parts, even if the parts geometrically change.
- The property is called “Color” and the value type is a Vec3 for R,G,B values.
- Note: Colors are not yet displayed on CAD parts in the viewport.
Informative Unit Error Messages
- We’ve introduced more informative error messages when incorrect or no units have been provided for a block input that requires units.
- The format for the new unit error message is as follows: Input Field Name expects units with dimension of unit type, but you provided unit type. Please adjust the units of the input.”
- Here is an example of when incorrect units are assigned to the Edge length input of the FE Tetrahedral Mesh: Edge length expects units with dimensions of length, but you provided no units. Please adjust the units of the input.”
Lattice Pipeline Filter Blocks (Beta)
- We’ve introduced six new lattice pipeline filter blocks for filtering the beams of a lattice body based on specific data such as beam angle, connectivity, containment, length, and thickness. Below is an outline of each new filter, all of which currently reside in Beta.
- Filter Beams by Angle
- Description: Filter the beams of a lattice body by their angle with respect to a plane.
- Input 01: Lattice body
- Type: Lattice Body
- Description: Lattice body that is intended to be filtered.
- Input 02: Condition:
- Type: Comparison Enum
- Description: Logical arguments used with the filter criteria, Angle.
- Input 03: Angle
- Type: Scalar
- Description: Beam angle filter criteria.
- Input 04: Plane
- Type: Plane
- Description: Plane used to determine the relative angle of the lattice beams.
- Output: Lattice Body
- Filter Beams by Length
- Description: Filter the beams of a lattice body by a beam length criteria and a conditional.
- Input 01: Lattice body
- Type: Lattice Body
- Description: Lattice body that is intended to be filtered.
- Input 02: Condition
- Type: Comparison Enum
- Description: Logical arguments used with the filter criteria, Length.
- Input 03: Length
- Type: Scalar
- Description: The filter criteria, beam length from the lattice body.
- Output: Lattice Body
- Filter Beams by Connectivity
- Description: Filters the beams of a lattice body by their connectivity: Closed, Floating, Open.
- Input 01: Lattice body
- Type: Lattice Body
- Description: Lattice body that is intended to be filtered.
- Input 02: Connectivity
- Type: Choice
- Description: Select the condition for filtering beams: Closed, Floating (both nodes exposed), Open (one node exposed).
- Output: Lattice Body
- Filter Beams by Containment
- Description: Filters beams of a lattice body by a region and a containment.
- Input 01: Lattice body
- Type: Lattice Body
- Description: Lattice body that is intended to be filtered.
- Input 02: Volume
- Type: Implicit Body
- Description: Volume that signifies the region to filter based on.
- Input 03: Inside region
- Type: Selection Containment
- Description: Option to include geometry based on fill or partial containment.
- Output: Lattice Body
- Filter Beams by Thickness
- Description: Filters the beams of a lattice body by a beam length criteria and a conditional.
- Input 01: Lattice body
- Type: Lattice Body
- Description: Lattice body that is intended to be filtered.
- Input 02: Condition
- Type: Comparison Enum
- Description: Logical arguments used with the filter criteria, Thickness.
- Input 03: Thickness
- Type: Scalar
- Description: Beam thickness filter criteria.
- Output: Lattice Body
- Filter Beams
- Description: Filters the beams of a lattice body based on a criteria.
- Input 01: Lattice body
- Type: Lattice Body
- Description: Lattice body that is intended to be filtered.
- Input 02: Values
- Type: Scalar
- Description: Values to compare against the criteria.
- Input 03: Condition
- Type: Comparison Enum
- Description: Logical arguments used with the filter criteria.
- Input 04: Criteria
- Type: Scalar
- Description: Value to determine the requirement for filtering.
- Output: Lattice Body
Local Repository for Your Custom Blocks
- We’ve introduced a convenient way for you to store, access, and load all of your custom blocks. We’ve added a “My Block Folder” which will load any and all custom blocks into all instances of nTop Platform.
- By default, this folder location is set to AppData/Roaming/nTopology/MyBlocks. You can change this folder destination to whichever location you find most convenient, by going to File > Settings > General and selecting the folder icon next to My Blocks Folder.
- You can also directly open your My Blocks Folder by going to File > My Blocks Folder
- To utilize this feature, simply add your nTop files that are set up to be utilized as custom blocks to this folder. The next time you launch a new instance of nTop platform, these blocks will already be loaded and you’ll be able to search for them via the search bar.
- Custom blocks can also be organized into subfolders within the main folder.
Ribbon Tooltips
- We’ve introduced Ribbon Tooltips to make it easier to learn about how a block functions without having to add it to your notebook to learn more.
- Simply hover your mouse over the icon of a block displayed in the ribbon and a text bubble will appear displaying the title and description of the block. See an example below:
Usage Improvements
- We’ve updated our Import Part block to include a new parameter called “Heal CAD”.
- Input 03: Heal CAD
- Type: CAD Healing Enum
- Description: Set level of automatic healing for CAD on import. This healing does not apply to x_t and x_b files.
- The three available healing options are None, Basic, and Deep, with Basic set as the default.
- Input 03: Heal CAD
- The following blocks have been added to the ribbon:
- Average
- Location: Math > Operations
- Implicit Body from Curve, Mesh from Voxel Grid, and Voxel Grid from Mesh:
- Location: Utilities > Conversion
- Average
- We’ve updated the Cell Map from CAD Face block parameter Offset to Height.
- All toolkit blocks now have default units on inputs that previously required the user to specify.
- Displacement Point Map, Von Mises Stress Point Map, Temperature Point Map, and Heat Point Map all have a new optional parameter called Step Number
- Input 02: Step Number
- Type: Integer
- Description: The step number for which the point map will be created. The last step is used by default.
- Input 02: Step Number
Bug Fixes
- Exporting curves no longer exports each curve as thousands of curve segments.
- nTop Platform no longer unexpectedly closes when you try to delete a variable when the select mode is turned on. Affects version: 2.22.7
- Split Slice Stack no longer forces nTop Platform to exit if there is only one closed contour in the stack. Affects Version 2.22.7
- Slicing a part with CAD and lattice geometry no longer creates slice artifacts. Affects version: 2.19.3 and later
- The File open dialog now opens to the most recently used directory by default. Affects version: 2.22.7
- We’ve resolved an issue where imported CAD bodies were missing faces. Affects versions: 2.5.6 and later.
- We’ve resolved an issue where Mirror FE Meshes were failing to run if the mirror plane wasn’t directly on the mesh face. Affects version: 2.20.5 and later
- We’ve resolved an issue where Mirror FE Meshes were not producing correct results when the merge option was not checked. Affects version: 2.20.5 and later