Pointwise Version 18.3 R2 is now available for download and production use. Generation of unstructured surface meshes has been sped-up by a factor of up to five through the application of multi-threading on multi-core desktop workstations.

Our approach to software development is focused on three main thrusts: Automate, Accelerate, and Innovate. Accelerate obviously applies to Pointwise V18.3 R2 with our use of multi-threading on multi-core desktop systems to reduce surface meshing time.

From the Innovate thrust, you will find that Pointwise V18.3 R2 extends hex-core meshing, introduced in V18.3 R1, to imprint the hex-core cell topology onto symmetry planes.

Also from Innovate comes an extension of Pointwise’s high-order mesh curving to now support periodicity. This makes these meshes much more applicable to turbomachinery applications.

The surface meshes (gray) on NASA’s Common Research Model were generated using the new, faster surface meshing. The cut through the hex-core volume mesh shows multiple levels of mesh refinement (colors indicate cell volume). The cyan mesh illustrates how the hex-core mesh topology is imprinted onto the symmetry plane.

Also included in Pointwise V18.3 R2 are:

• Three vertex-centered mesh metric functions have been added to Examine. Min. Orthogonality Angle, Expansion Factor, and Volume will be of interest if the mesh is to be used in a vertex-centered finite-volume flow solver such as CFX, FUN3D, SU2, TAU, and Edge.
• In addition to mesh data, Pointwise now imports boundary and volume condition data from CAE files through extensions of the Plugin SDK.
• The following CAE plugins were updated to add BC and VC support: SU2, CFD++, Gmsh, and FUN3D.
• NURBS surfaces can now be created from, and fitted to, database shell surfaces (discrete geometry) via the Glyph scripting language.
• Relative to previous versions, there’s a significant speed up when pressing Apply in the Solve command for large grids.
• Align to Screen is now available when editing database note entities.
• The layer tab now highlights the layer of the domains selected in Set Boundary Conditions.
• Links in the Messages window now have additional options in the Context menu. For example, an XYZ value can be set as the rotation point.
• Quadrilateral cells can now be exported to STL files (despite being against the STL format specification).
• Performance of the FUN3D exporter has been improved (40% in at least one case).
• Filters in Examine now support filtering by point.

Pointwise V18.3 R2 is available today for download and production use.