nTopology 3.27 is here! This release features some minor block updates, significant bug fixes, and an impactful upgrade to simulation analysis. 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.

• Moment of inertia matching in Simplified Body Representation (Beta)

• Block Updates

• Bug Fixes

Moment of inertia matching in Simplified Body Representation (Beta)

• Simplified Body Representation (Beta) can now match the principal moment of inertia in addition to matching the mass and center of mass when you check the “Match Inertia” block input.
• The CAD envelope will be converted to surface bodies when you check the option. Multiple solid spheres are generated with calculated density values to mimic the final mass properties of the nTopology design.
• The output of the Simplified Body Representation (Beta) block exports as a Parasolid file (*.x_t) through the Export Part block, and the Parasolid output is compatible with NX and Solidworks.

Block Updates

• We released version 1.1.0 of the following Cell Map blocks and deprecated version 1.0.0 for a bug fix. If you checked the Linear Cell Map option, the bug created duplicate Lattice beams at the periodic domain boundary.

  • Cylindrical Cell Map
  • Spherical Cell Map
  • Cell Map from CAD Face
  • Cell Map between CAD Faces
  • Cylindrical Volume Lattice
  • Spherical Volume Lattice

• We released version 1.1.0 of the Section Body block and deprecated version 1.0.0 due to a bug. The bug incorrectly returned an empty profile when using the block to section one or more Cylinders.

• The post-processing phase for all simulation analysis blocks has been parallelized, resulting in significant performance improvements. The post-processing phase is when all the result fields (e.g., stress, strain, and heat flux) are automatically computed from the state vector. This part of the solution is approximately 80% faster, while the overall block run times have decreased by 40%.

Bug Fixes

• We fixed an issue causing nTopology to exit when opening a file while the cursor was placed in a block input.
• We fixed an issue causing nTopology to exit when trying to open a file by providing a path to a non-existent file.
• An issue was resolved when non-zero rotations or displacements were specified in the Point Restraint block. In previous versions, these restraints were incorrectly enforced. If your notebook contains a Point Restraint block with non-zero values, the block will automatically rebuild.
• We fixed an issue causing nTopology to exit when running the Simplify Slice Stack block if one or more of the polylines in the input Slice Stack had a missing vertex.
• We fixed an issue with the Orient Object, Transform Object, and Translate Object blocks that were causing them to return the wrong data type. When a user inputs a Lattice into one of these transform blocks, the return was an Implicit Body type rather than the Lattice type. This caused issues downstream, such as preventing .3mf file exports of the Lattice. Now the correct type is returned.
• We fixed an issue with the Lattice from Graph block that applied the wrong thickness value to the Lattice if the Graph input was imported as an .ltcx file with existing thickness data. This is important for a workflow where you’re importing an .ltcx file generated by another tool or process and then using nTopology to use Field-Driven design to achieve your desired Lattice thickness. Existing thickness data automatically overrides now so that you can correctly set your own. If you need to preserve existing thickness information, use the Import Thick Lattice Graph block.
• We fixed the following issues in the Warp Cell Map (Beta) block. The version of the block is not incremented as Beta blocks are not versioned.
• Users were previously unable to use the Diamond or Fluorite Unit Cells in conjunction with the Warp Cell Map block when constructing a lattice.
• Prior to 3.27, users warping a Cylindrical Cell Map in the radial direction from the center axis experienced incorrect ramping. Now the warping is correct with uniform displacement along the radial direction.

Before 3.27

In 3.27

• We fixed an issue that when you selected the Centroid Inside trimming option, it produced an incorrect asymmetric Cell Map if the output from the Warp Cell Map block was used as input to the Trim Cell Map block. In 3.27, the Cell Map is correct and symmetric if the input Body or CAD Face that generated the Cell Map is symmetric.
• We fixed an issue that was causing nTop notebooks using the Warp Cell Map block to have extremely long load times when attempting to open the file.
• We fixed an issue that resulted in a Lattice with missing pieces when the value provided for the Discretization Vector input was lower than the Cell Map’s cell size. Now the Discretization input is removed altogether, and users no longer need to provide this input.

Before 3.27:

In 3.27: