Version 3.26

• New Volume Latticing Blocks
• Search in Place
• Improved Go To Functionality
• Lighting Enhancements
• View Control Improvements - CAD Tools Key Mapping
• Usage Improvements
• Block Updates
• Bug Fixes

New Volume Latticing Blocks

• As part of our new latticing technology, we released three new and easy-to-use volume latticing blocks: Rectangular Volume Lattice, Cylindrical Volume Lattice, and Spherical Volume Lattice.

• Block Name: Rectangular Volume Lattice
• Location: Lattices > Lattice
• Default Overload:
• Description: Generates a Lattice that completely fills a Volume by tessellating a Unit Cell along rectangular coordinates. This block accepts a 1 Parameter Unit Cell, with additional overloads for 0 or 2 Parameter Unit Cells. By default, the Lattice is then trimmed to the surface of the Volume input. Provide an optional Frame input to customize the origin and orientation of the rectangular coordinates.
• Input 1: Volume - Implicit Body in which the Lattice will be generated.
• Input 2: Unit cell - Two-parameter Unit Cell to tessellate within the Volume input.
• Input 3: Unit cell size - Size of the Unit Cells in the Frame's X, Y, and Z directions.
• Input 4: Frame - Optional Frame that defines the rectangular coordinates used to generate the Lattice. By default, the Frame's origin is the "min point" property of the Volume input's bounding box, and the Frame's X and Y are the "axis 1" and "axis 2" properties of the Volume input's bounding box.
• Input 5: Trim - Option to trim the Lattice at the Volume input's surface.
• Input 6: Unit cell parameter 1 - Value of the Unit Cell's first parameter. The input name will update based on the selected Unit Cell. Each Unit Cell's parameters can be found in the Unit Cell's documentation.
• Notes:
  • All Unit Cell types are accepted as the 2nd input.
  • This block internally uses the **Periodic Lattice**, **Rectangular Cell Map**, and either **Trim Cell Map** or **Trim Lattice** depending on what trimming selection you make.
  • You can use this block as a replacement for the following deprecated latticing blocks:
    • Volume Lattice (deprecated)
    • TPMS (deprecated)
    • Walled TPMS (deprecated)

• Block Name: Cylindrical Volume Lattice
• Location: Lattices > Lattice
• Default Overload:
• Description: Generates a Lattice that completely fills a Volume by tessellating a Unit Cell along cylindrical coordinates. This block accepts a 1 Parameter Unit Cell, with additional overloads for 0 or 2 Parameter Unit Cells. By default, the Lattice's beams are then trimmed to the surface of the Volume input. Provide an optional Frame input to customize the origin and orientation of the cylindrical coordinates.
• Input 1: Volume - Implicit Body in which the Lattice will be generated.
• Input 2: Unit cell - One-parameter Unit Cell to tessellate within the Volume input.
• Input 3: Cell radius - Unit Cell length in the Frame's radial direction.
• Input 4: Cell height - Unit Cell length in the Frame's height direction.
• Input 5: Arc count - Number of Unit Cells in the Frame's circumferential direction.
• Input 6: Frame - Optional Frame that defines the cylindrical coordinates used to generate the Lattice. By default, the Frame is derived from the Volume's principal axes about its center of mass.
• Input 7: Trim - Option to trim the Lattice at the Volume input's surface.
• Input 8: Unit cell parameter 1 - Value of the Unit Cell's first parameter. The input name will update based on the selected Unit Cell. Each Unit Cell's parameters can be found in the Unit Cell's documentation.
• Notes:
  • All Unit Cell types are accepted as the 2nd input.
  • This block internally uses the Periodic Lattice, Cylindrical Cell Map, and either Trim Cell Map or Trim Lattice depending on what trimming selection you make.
  • You can use this block as a replacement for the following deprecated latticing blocks:
    • TPMS Cylindrical (deprecated)
    • Walled TPMS Cylindrical (deprecated)

• Block Name: Spherical Volume Lattice
• Location: Lattices > Lattice
• Default Overload: Description: Generates a Lattice that completely fills a Volume by tessellating a Unit Cell along spherical coordinates. This block accepts a 1 Parameter Unit Cell, with additional overloads for 0 or 2 Parameter Unit Cells. By default, the Lattice's beams are then trimmed to the surface of the Volume input. Provide an optional Frame input to customize the origin and orientation of the spherical coordinates.
• Input 1: Volume - Implicit Body in which the Lattice will be generated.
• Input 2: Unit cell - One-parameter Unit Cell to tessellate within the Volume input.
• Input 3: Cell radius - Unit Cell length in the Frame's radial direction.
• Input 4: Latitude count - Number of Unit Cells in the Frame's latitudinal direction.
• Input 5: Longitude count - Number of Unit Cells in the Frame's longitudinal direction.
• Input 6: Frame - Optional frame that defines the spherical coordinates used to generate the Lattice. By default, the Frame's origin is the centroid of the volume input's bounding box.
• Input 7: Trim - Option to trim the Lattice at the Volume input's surface.
• Input 8: Unit cell parameter 1 - Value of the Unit Cell's first parameter. The input name will update based on the selected Unit Cell. Each Unit Cell's parameters can be found in the Unit Cell's documentation.
• Notes:
  • All Unit Cell types are accepted as the 2nd input.
  • This block internally uses the Periodic Lattice, Spherical Cell Map, and either Trim Cell Map or Trim Lattice depending on what trimming selection you make.
  • You can use this block as a replacement for the following deprecated latticing blocks:
    • TPMS Spherical (deprecated)
    • Walled TPMS Spherical (deprecated)

Search in Place

We made enhancements to our search capabilities to make them more user-friendly. This new feature is called Search in Place:

• What it does:
  • Currently, when you are focused on a part of the notebook and want to add a block, you have to add a block from the top search bar. We’ve been told by our users that this is distracting and causes a loss of focus. We’ve improved this experience by enabling you to search for and add blocks, comments, and sections at your current location in the notebook.
• Common uses: 
  • Search in Place is activated by right-clicking the dividing line under a block, under a blank section, or between blocks.
  • Once Search in Place is activated via right-clicking, a context menu will give you the option to:
    • Add Block - When selected, will open up the search dialog to the right of the notebook at the line.
    • Add Section - When selected, will add a section below the line
    • Add Comment - When selected, will activate the comment for that block when a block already exists below the line. If a comment already exists, it will activate the existing comment and allow you to edit it.
    • Paste and Paste with References, as they exist today.
• Tips 
  • Double-clicking the dividing line will skip the initial Search in Place context menu and brings you directly to the Add Block search dialog.
  • We updated Context Search’s icon to match Search in Place’s “+” icon. When you select the “+” icon on a block, it will search for and add blocks that are compatible as outer nested blocks with your current selection. When you add a block via Search in Place, you can search for and add any block below the dividing line.
  • Clicking on the dividing line and selecting the “S” key on your keyboard (the same keyboard shortcut as Context Search) will skip the initial Search in Place context menu and bring you directly to the Add Block search dialog.

Improved Go To Functionality

We made enhancements to our “Go To” Functionality allowing you to be able to more easily trace chip instances in your notebook.

• What it does: 
  • Allows you to go to the source location of its instanced chip in the notebook by right-clicking directly on the chip and selecting “Go To Block”.
• Common uses: 
  • Can be activated from a chip instance of a variable, variable property, and non-variable property.
• Tips: 
  • If the source reference is within a collapsed section, it will uncollapse the section. Can be activated either on the chip, the input panel, or the input section of the block that contains the chip.

Lighting Enhancements

• What has changed:
  • The visualization experience in nTopology has now been significantly improved to help get a better understanding of complex geometry. This has been achieved through changing the lighting which helps in geometry discernibility, and by introducing Ambient Occlusion (which is set to ON by default) to help visualize depth in porous objects and lattices easily.
• Sample before and after images: 

Before	With New Lighting and AO

• Ambient Occlusion Settings 
  • A new checkbox has been added in Settings that allows toggling of the new Ambient Occlusion. By default, this is set to ON.

View Control Improvements - CAD Tools Key Mapping

• What has changed:
  • nTopology now allows the selection of different model navigation options (zoom, pan, rotate controls) from a dropdown menu in Settings. The options provided for different CAD environments map the basic zoom, pan, and rotate functionalities to corresponding keys on the selected CAD tool, which makes it more intuitive to use nTopology as you transition between your CAD platform of choice and nTopology as a part of your everyday work.
  • The CAD platforms currently supported are:
    • Solidworks NX
    • CATIA
    • Creo
    • nTopology (default)
  • Core navigation behavior across all key mapping options has also been updated.
    • Mouse scroll now allows zooming towards the mouse location.
    • Rotation (orbit) behavior has been updated to be more intuitive, allowing easier navigation around the model using a dynamic rotation point which is set when initiating an orbit operation with the mouse over the object.
    • The rotation point can now be seen on the model and provides an easy visual reference when the point is dynamically updated during routine model navigation.
• Implementation Details: 
  • The orbit operation now provides a visual indication of the rotation point to support dynamic rotation point adjustment.
  • If the user initiates an orbit with the mouse above any part of an object, the point on the object under the mouse will be locked as the rotation point.
  • If the user initiates an orbit with the mouse away from an object (in space), then the last used rotation point would be used.

Also, the zoom via scroll now zooms towards the mouse location.

Accessing Settings for Key Maps:

Usage Improvements

• We updated the error messages of list blocks to specify which list index (starting at 0) is causing the error. When multiple indices are causing errors, the error message will specify the lowest list index until all errors are fixed.
• Right-clicking on a variable and selecting “Make Model Input” will insert the variable at the bottom of the Inputs list instead of at the top of the Inputs list.
• We updated the behavior of CAD translation blocks such as Rotate Object, Translate Object, and Scale Object blocks to generate the output even if the input CAD geometry contains some faults.

Block Updates

• Our 3rd generation latticing technology is now out of beta. The following blocks are renamed and moved from Beta > Lattices to the main Lattices ribbon tab:

Block name before 3.26	Block name in 3.26
Branched Lattice Body	Branched Lattice
Cell Map on CAD Face	Cell Map from CAD Face
Cell Map on Quad Mesh	Cell Map from Quad Mesh
Collapse Lattice Body Vertices	Collapse Lattice Vertices
Delaunay Lattice Body	Delaunay Lattice
Extend Open Lattice Body Beams	Extend Open Beams
Rib Lattice Body from Beams	Extrude Lattice
Import Element Pro Rule	Import Unit Cell Rule
Lattice Body from Beams	Lattice from Beams
Lattice Body from Lattice	Lattice from Graph
Lattice Body from Surface Mesh	Lattice from Surface Mesh
Lattice Body from Volume Mesh	Lattice from Volume Mesh
Merge Lattice Bodies	Merge Lattices
Modify Lattice Body Thickness	Modify Lattice Thickness
Orthofoam Lattice Body	Orthofoam Lattice
Periodic Lattice Body	Periodic Lattice
Trim Lattice Body	Trim Lattice
Lattice Body from Surface Voronoi	Voronoi Surface Lattice
Lattice Body from Volume Voronoi	Voronoi Volume Lattice

• The following blocks are moved from Beta > Lattices to the main Lattices ribbon tab, with no rename:
  • • Cell Map between CAD Faces
    • Custom Implicit Unit Cell
    • Cylindrical Cell Map
    • FE Lattice Component
    • FE Lattice Mesh
    • Filter Beams
    • Filter Beams by Angle
    • Filter Beams by Connectivity
    • Filter Beams by Containment
    • Filter Beams by Length
    • Filter Beams by Thickness
    • Graph Unit Cell
    • Orient Unit Cell
    • Rectangular Cell Map
    • Spherical Cell Map
    • TPMS Unit Cell with Offset
    • Trim Cell Map
    • Walled TPMS Unit Cell
    • Walled TPMS Unit Cell with Offset

• The following block is re-named, but is staying in beta:

Block name before 3.26	Block name in 3.26
Pore Diameters from Lattice Body	Lattice Pore Size

• The following blocks are deprecated. Visit the Latticing Technology Transition Guide to learn how to transition your notebook from the old to new latticing technology.
  • Branched Lattice (deprecated)
  • Collapse Lattice Vertices (deprecated)
  • Conformal Lattice between CAD Faces (deprecated)
  • Conformal Lattice from CAD Face (deprecated)
  • Delaunay Lattice (deprecated)
  • Extend Open Beams (deprecated)
  • FE Lattice Component (deprecated)
  • FE Lattice Mesh (deprecated)
  • Lattice from Volume Mesh (deprecated)
  • Merge Lattices (deprecated)
  • Orthofoam Lattice (deprecated)
  • Remove Beams (deprecated)
  • Rib Lattice from Beams (deprecated)
  • Surface Lattice (deprecated)
  • Thicken Lattice (deprecated)
  • TPMS (deprecated)
  • TPMS Cylindrical (deprecated)
  • TPMS Spherical (deprecated)
  • Trim Lattice (deprecated)
  • Volume Lattice (deprecated)
  • Voronoi Boundary Lattice (deprecated)
  • Voronoi Volume Lattice (deprecated)
  • Walled TPMS (deprecated)
  • Walled TPMS Cylindrical (deprecated)
  • Walled TPMS Spherical (deprecated)
• The lattice data type names are changed. Read understanding the lattice data types for more information. 

Type name before 3.26	Type name in 3.26
Voronoi Volume Lattice Body	Voronoi Volume Lattice
Voronoi Surface Lattice Body	Voronoi Surface Lattice
Lattice Body	Lattice
Thick Lattice	Thick Graph
Lattice	Graph

 

Bug Fixes