nTopology 3.14 is here! It may not be the international Pi day, but it is 3.14 (Pi) release day at nTopology! You've been requesting this slice of pie for quite some time, and we are happy to say that we have listened and baked it up fresh! Cut, Copy, and Paste is here. You can copy blocks throughout your Notebook, into an input, and even into another instance of nTopology. The next feature served up is a beta block that packages up your ingredient (STL mesh) and sends it straight to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Slicer 2, a tool path generation software for large-scale 3D printing. For a last highlight, be sure to check out GPU acceleration because we've added further performance enhancements.
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.
Cut, Copy, and Paste
- One of our top requested usability features is finally here! This new capability enables you to Cut, Copy, and Paste single blocks or multiple blocks at one time.
- Once the blocks are on the clipboard, they can be Pasted to the notebook, or into compatible block inputs. Blocks can also be pasted between two separate instances of the software.
- We’ve also included an option, Paste with References, which is especially helpful when Copying and Pasting between two files. This feature Pastes all dependencies and ensures there are no broken references when blocks are Pasted.
- Cut, Copy, and Paste options can be accessed from the Edit drop down menu, Right-click Menu and through Keyboard Shortcuts (Ctrl+x, Ctrl+c, Ctrl+v).
ORNL Slicer 2 API Client (Beta)
- We’ve introduced ORNL Slicer 2 API Client block to send a STL mesh file from nTopology to ORNL Slicer 2, an additive manufacturing tool path generation software developed for large-scale 3D printing of metals and polymers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
- Block Name: ORNL Slicer 2 API Client (Beta)
- Location: Beta->Utilities - Exchange
- Description: Sends a part to a ORNL Slicer 2 API endpoint.
- Input 1: Upload name
- Type: Text
- Description: Display name to be requested at the ORNL Slicer 2 API.
- Input 2: File
- Type: File Path
- Description: File to be sliced.
- Input 3: Endpoint
- Type: Text
- Description: URL of the ORNL Slicer 2 API. Start with ‘http://’ or ‘https://’ to specify the protocol.
- Input 4: Port
- Type: Integer
- Description: Port of the ORNL Slicer 2 API server.
Block Updates
- The behavior of the Trim Cell Map (beta) block has been updated for the fill type trimming rule “Centroid inside.” Now, when a cell’s centroid is exactly on the boundary of the trimming volume, the cell is considered to be inside of the volume rather than outside.
- The Delaunay Volume Mesh block has been moved out of beta and into production.
- Extract Lattice Vertices is now deprecated. Vertices is a property of the Lattice data type that you can access in the Properties tab of the Information Panel or by typing <your Lattice instance name>.vertices directly into an input.
- Implicit Body from Thick Lattice has been deprecated. The type auto-converts to an Implicit Body, which allows you to place it into any Implicit Body input directly.
Usage Improvements
- We’ve made further performance enhancements to the GPU acceleration capabilities as we get closer to moving it out of beta for all users. Be sure to enable the GPU acceleration in the Settings panel and try it out if you haven’t already!
Bug Fixes
- The unit system has been updated to properly distinguish between Hertz and radian/sec. Prior to this release, they were both treated as units of 1/s, and now Hz is correctly interpreted as 1 cycle/sec = 2 Pi/sec = 360 degrees/sec. If you open a file saved in a previous version of nTop, any input specified with units Hertz will have the same numerical value, but the units will automatically update to rad/sec. This changes the intent of the input, but ensures the same results are generated. We recommend reviewing any input with units Hertz and rad/sec to check if the input has been specified correctly, particularly for the Modal Analysis, Rotational Velocity Load, and the Natural Frequency Response blocks.
- As part of the bug fix described above, the Modal Analysis block has been updated to version 1.1.0. The previous version is no longer available due to potential errors in the output. When opening files containing the old version of the Modal Analysis block, an error message will be issued with instructions on how to update to the new block.
- We fixed an issue with the Trim Cell Map block that was causing too many cells to be removed in certain cases.
- We fixed an issue that was causing the Rectangular Cell Map block to freeze in certain cases.
- We fixed an issue where progress bars were not showing when the view of a Lattice Body was being computed with the GPU acceleration turned on.
- We fixed an issue where already populated inputs could be unexpectedly overwritten using the interactive slider.