Pointwise Version 18.0 R4 is now available for download and production use. Although primarily a maintenance release, V18.0 R4 includes several new features beginning with the docking of user scripts to the toolbar.

With the wide adoption of Glyph scripting for automating meshing through the development of templates and macros, a more convenient method than the menu was needed for executing user scripts. With this new release, customer scripts can be docked to the toolbar for 1-click access.

Users can now dock their Glyph scripts to Pointwise’s toolbars thereby customizing the software for their personal workflow. The screenshot above shows the dialog box for adding a script and assigning it an icon while the panel on the left shows the contents of the current script toolbar.

Also within the scripting feature suite, Glyph server functionality has been extended to remote hosts. (The Glyph server previously only listened for clients from the local host.)

File I/O Enhancements

Mesh data can now be imported from and exported to CGNS files formatted using HDF5. (Only ADF format had been supported until now.)

You can define the folder/directory where the file browser opens for various commands through an environment variable setting as listed below.

• PWI_GLYPH_START_DIR = Script, Execute
• PWI_EXPORT_CAE_DIR = File, Export, CAE
• PWI_EXPORT_GRID_DIR = File, Export, Grid
• PWI_FILE_OPEN_DIR = File, Open

Import of geometry models in NX11 format is now supported.

During File, Open when the actual distribution of grid points on connectors is found to be inconsistent with the distribution function assigned to the connector you now are presented with a much more concise message and given an option on how to proceed:

• preserve the grid point locations and change the distribution functions to type general, or
• preserve the distribution functions and recompute the grid point locations.

Support for Suggar++ has been raised to include v2.9.

Meshing Enhancements

The Examine command now computes a cell’s non-orthogonality metric which is defined as the angle between a face’s normal vector and the vector connecting the centroids of the cells that share the face.

Refinement, decimation, and smoothing of an unstructured surface mesh now only effect the isotropic cells and will not change any anisotropic cells.

User Interface Enhancements

Ctrl+Shift+X was added as a shortcut to re-enter the Examine command with all your previous settings.

All the Show commands (e.g. Show Domains, Show Axes) now have a toolbar implementation.

The Set Boundary Conditions and Set Volume Conditions command now tally the number of mesh cells in each BC/VC region.

Note: A Change to OS X Support is Coming

Beginning with Version 18.1 (release date TBD), Pointwise will no longer support versions of OS X older than 10.10.

Upgrade to V18.0 R4 Today

You can download Pointwise Version 18.0 R4 from at www.pointwise.com/downloads. Current customers can begin using it immediately. If you would like to try Pointwise, request a free trial license today.