nTopology 3.12 is here! This release introduces live Topology Optimization block updates, even allowing you to adjust the threshold and density for each iteration. We’ve added in a new behavior where you can right-click on a mesh face and flood to the boundary, allowing for easier boundary selection. In addition, we’ve implemented improvements to the Mesh from Implicit Body by Voxels (beta) block to help prevent self-intersections in the resulting mesh and improvements to the CAD Body from Mesh (beta) block to ensure the surfaces have the correct normals. 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.

• Live Topology Optimization Updates and Convergence Plots

• Right-Click Flood Fill

• Usage Improvements

• Bug Fixes

Live Topology Optimization Updates

• When a Topology Optimization block is being computed, you can now visualize the evolution of the solution. By toggling the block’s visibility icon, the density of the design space is presented for each iteration. While the solution is progressing, you can adjust the threshold or rotate, pan, or zoom on the last computed iteration. You can also review previous iterations of the solution.

Live updates for topology optimization in the 3D scene.

• In addition to the live updates, a real-time convergence plot of the topology optimization solution is available in the Displace tab of the Topology Optimization block.

Real-time convergence plots for topology optimization.

Right-Click Flood Fill

• With release 3.12, you can now select a mesh face in the 3D scene and flood to the boundary.
• Right-clicking on the mesh launches a context menu with the option to perform the flood fill operation. The option works for both an FE Mesh or Mesh object. The flood fill operation creates a block in the notebook with the associated inputs, so your flood selection is persisted.
  

Select mesh in scene, then right click over mesh surface to bring up the FE Boundary by Flood Fill context menu.

Selecting the FE Boundary by Flood Fill context menu floods the mesh faces in the neighborhood of the selection point.

The FE Boundary by Flood Fill context menu creates a block in the notebook to persist the selection.

Usage Improvements

• We’ve improved the Mesh from Implicit Body by Voxels (beta) block to prevent self-intersections in the resulting Mesh that were occurring when the input body had complex topology.
• We made an update to the CAD Body from Mesh (beta) block that will ensure surface normal continuity in the output CAD Body.

Bug Fixes

• We fixed a bug in the Mesh from Implicit Body by Voxels block that was producing open meshes in certain cases.
• Minor error message and tooltip bug fixes