Release Date: February 23rd, 2021

nTopology nTop Platform 2.28 is here! This release brings you the ability to import Computational Fluid Dynamics data and create new point maps from this data, such as Density, Pressure, Temperature, and Velocity point maps. In addition, we’ve introduced a new block for exporting slices to SLC and have given you the ability to export point exposures to a Renishaw machine in CLI format. Lastly, you can now define temperature dependent thermal properties in your isotropic material. 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.

• Define Temperature Dependent Thermal Properties in Your Isotropic Material

• Export Points Exposures to a Renishaw Machine in CLI Format

• Export Slices to SLC Block (Beta)

• Filter Mesh by Flood Fill (Beta)

• Import CFD data in CGNS format

• New Point Map Blocks for Import CFD Results

• Usage Improvements

• Bug Fixes

Define Temperature Dependent Thermal Properties in Your Isotropic Material

• The Isotropic Thermal Property block now features an overload in Beta, that enables you to define temperature dependent isotropic thermal material properties. Below is a description of the overload.
• Location: Simulation > Material Attributes
• Description: Define an Isotropic Nonlinear Thermal Property by specifying the thermal conductivity and specific heat of the desired material. Providing scalar fields as thermal properties will result in spatially varying material properties.
• Input 01: Conductivity
  • Type: Dictionary
  • Description: Thermal conductivity.
• Input 02: Specific heat
  • Type: Dictionary
  • Description: Specific heat capacity.
• Output: Isotropic Thermal Property
• Note: Each dictionary should be composed of two lists: one Temperature list for the temperature references that the provided material properties correspond to, and a Scalar list of the material properties with the respective units for each material property. See an example below:

Export Points Exposures to a Renishaw Machine in CLI Format

• We’ve extended our Export Slices to Renishaw block to support the point exposure method which is also known as RenExposure for Renishaw.
• Your Slice Stack input should be a Merge Slice Stacks block containing Slice Lattice and other sliced geometries to use the RenExposure feature.
• You can use the CLI output containing the point slices only if:
  • QuantAM 5.3+ is available.
  • Any of the parts in a Slice CLI file does not contain only point data, the file will be considered invalid and will not be imported.
  • The difference between the first 2 exposure layers Z-Heights is equal to the CLI Slice Thickness.
  • RenExposures are present in the same CLI file.

Export Slices to SLC Block (Beta)

• SLC is a slice data file type for 3D Systems machines. You can now export the closed curves as an SLC file.
• Name: Export Slices to SLC (Beta)
• Location: Beta > Additive Manufacturing
• Description: Export slice stack data to a SLC file.
• Input 01: Path
  • Type: File Path
  • Description: Slice stack to generate SLC stack to generate SLC file from.
• Input 02: Slice Stack
  • Type: Slice stack
  • Description: Slice stack to generate SLC file from.
• Output: SLC slice data

Filter Mesh by Flood Fill (Beta)

• Location: Beta > Modeling - Utilities
• Description: Select faces of a surface mesh using a flood fill operation. The block chooses the closest mesh face to the specified origin (in a specific direction, if provided), and uses a flood fill operation to select all faces that can be reached from that face without crossing edges at which the angle between face normals exceeds the specified angle.
• Input 01: Mesh
  • Type: Mesh
  • Description: The surface mesh to filter.
• Input 02: Origin
  • Type: Point
  • Description: The origin of the direction or initial face selection.
• Input 03: Angle
  • Type: Scalar
  • Description: The feature angle for the flood fill operation.
• Input 04: Direction
  • Type: Vector
  • Description: The direction to intersect the mesh. If not provided, then the origin point will be projected to the nearest face.
• Output: Mesh

Import CFD data in CGNS format

• You can now import Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) data in a CGNS format using the new Import CFD Analysis Result block, which is currently in Beta.
• This block also lets you import steady-state analysis results from CFD analysis in Ansys Fluent.
• Name: Import CFD Analysis Result (Beta)
• Location: Beta > Analysis-Exchange
• Description: Import CFD Analysis Result file from an external location.
• Input 01: Path
  • Type: File Path
  • Description: System path of CFD Analysis Result file.
• Input 02: Unit System
  • Type: Unit System
  • Description: The unit system of the external results. This will be used to consistently translate the external results into the active unit system.
• Output: CFD Analysis Result

New Point Map Blocks for Import CFD Results

• We’ve introduced several new blocks that output the corresponding point maps out of an imported CFD analysis result. These new blocks include Velocity Point Map, Pressure Point Map, and Density Point Map. We’ve also introduced a new overload in the Temperature Point Map block that accepts CFD analysis results as an input. Below are the outlines of each new block and the new overload:
  • Density Point Map (Beta)
    • Location: Beta > Simulation - Exchange
    • Description: Create a Scalar Point Map from nodal density values of a CFD analysis.
    • Input 01: CFD analysis
      • Type: CFD analysis
      • Description: Density point map for the result.
    • 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.
    • Output: Scalar Point Map
  • Pressure Point Map (Beta)
    • Location: Beta > Simulation - Exchange
    • Description: Create a Scalar Point Map from nodal pressure values of a CFD analysis.
    • Input 01: CFD analysis
      • Type: CFD Analysis Result
      • Description: Pressure point map for this result.
    • 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.
    • Output: Scalar Point Map
  • Temperature Point Map
    • Location: Simulation > Exchange
    • Description: Create a Scalar Point Map from nodal temperature values of a steady-state thermal analysis.
    • Input 01: Thermal Analysis
      • Type: CFD Analysis Result
      • Description: Thermal point map for this result.
    • 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.
    • Output: Temperature Point Map
  • Velocity Point Map (Beta)
    • Location: Beta > Simulation - Exchange
    • Description: Create a Vector Point Map from nodal velocities of a CFD Analysis result.
    • Input 01: Analysis result
      • Type: CFD Analysis Result
      • Description: Velocity point map for this result.
    • 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.
    • Output: Vector Point Map

Usage Improvements

• The Export FE Mesh now contains CGNS CFD data file (*.cgns) as an available file format for export.
• We’ve introduced a new error message when you try exporting FE Surface Meshes as .msh. Export of face elements to Ansys Fluent .msh file is not supported.
• You can now section cut FE Meshes containing non-tet elements. This includes FE Component, FE Mesh, FE Model, and FE Results.

Bug Fixes

• Export CLI block was causing nTopology to unexpectedly exit when Binary was selected as the output type.
• We’ve updated notebook sections so that the input section of a notebook is clickable and editable, even if the first section is collapsed.
• We’ve resolved an issue where vector inputs were accepting incorrect units.
• We’ve resolved an issue where Offset Voxel Grid was accepting values with any units.