Pointwise Release Notes

Version: Pointwise V18.1 R1
Release Date: April 2018
News Release: www.pointwise.com/news/2018/Mesh-Automation-Adaptability-Forefront-Major-Pointwise-Release.html

Overview
New Features
Resolved Issues
Platform Support
Previous Versions

Overview

Pointwise is our leading mesh generation software product for CFD, encompassing nearly three decades of technology development. The product features a modern software framework and workflow and provides tools like 64-bit support, multi-threading, and Windows/Linux/Mac portability.

These release notes are provided as a reference for the new features included in the latest version of Pointwise as well as any known issues that were resolved.

New Features

PluginSDK now supports grid import. SU2, FUN3D, CRUNCH, CFD++, CFX, Fluent, and OpenFOAM are included in the current release. For all others, a user can use the PluginSDK to create an importer for their preferred CAE format.
The license server has been updated to RLM 12.3.
A data filter/probe for individual cells has been added to Examine.
The Examine feature has been expanded and improved in a number of ways:

The cut plane position can now be set by clicking a point.
Cell Type is now available for domains
A Zoom and Align button has been added to the Extrema tab that will orient the view to the normal of the max/min cell.
Filters can be created to highlight cells that meet (or violate) a set of criteria.
Filtered cells can be used to create a Source Point Cloud.

Blocks can now be built based upon the selection of entities. This can be used to create an unstructured farfield or blocks of type Voxel, Structured, or Unstructured for overset grid refinement.
Unstructured domain cells can now be aligned with a source.
Any two connectors in an unstructured domain can now be joined.
The Growth distribution has been improved to allow different specifications for the interior of a connector.
The user manual is now online and can be accessed through the menu or by hitting the F1 key. Context-sensitivity has also been added. For example, if the Create, Build Blocks panel is open and the F1 key is hit, then user manual will open to the Create, Build Blocks page.
Several T-Rex improvements including:

The T-Rex mesh can now be saved even if the isotropic mesh fails to be generated.
Maximum height can now be set as a factor of isotropic height
The algorithm has improved handling for quad dominant and/or structured domains.
Match domains between T-Rex fronts of differing heights now use a weighted average of the front heights.

A user defined view can now be assigned by holding CTRL and clicking the view shortcut.
A native file can now be dragged and dropped on the GUI to be opened.
CGNS can now be exported in either HDF5 or ADF file formats using the Solver Attributes menu.
The Draw Shapes tool now includes creating grid entities rather than just databases or sources.
Persistent Cut Planes can be created that exist outside of the Examine function. These planes can be created from within Examine or through the Create menu and have their own panel.
A new utility for overset grid creation, Frameworks, has been introduced. This tool allows the user to create hierarchies of grid entities using local coordinates. Each hierarchy is called a Framework and can be transformed to other locations using attachment points or standard transform methodologies.
Pointwise on OS/X has multiple improvements:

OS/X 10.10 (Yosemite) and XCode 6.4 are now supported.
A launch script is now available.
The keyboard shortcut for split has been changed to CTRL+Q to avoid conflict with system-wide shortcuts.

Domains of all types can now have cell density influenced by sources.
Unstructured blocks can now be split. This includes blocks that utilize T-Rex. The splits can be a specified distance from the boundary or based upon the layers of a T-Rex front
A glyph command has been introduced that can control verbosity.
UGRID hybrid cells and volumes can now be imported.
SUGGAR++ has been added as a CAE export format.

Resolved Issues

SPR	Description
PW-21040	A misspelling in an error message has been corrected from “entityies” to “entities.”
PW-21015	The UMCPSEG plugin had incorrectly swapped faces and nodes.
PW-21001	A block failed to export successfully to ADS. This was due to a mismatch in cell combination when the block was initialized.
PW-20982	A hole in a domain was corrected, but the block it was associated with remained undefined.
PW-20974	Corrected an issue that caused older files to not open with the error, “Failed to read NMB file (Record Identifier: /Pointwise/Database.)”
PW-20956	Connectors were unable to be extruded even though their respective domain could be. As a result, the algorithm for connector extrusion has been improved.
PW-20952	The CAE, Set Boundary Condition task now opens quicker and has less delay between assigning BC’s.
PW-20952	The CAE, Set Boundary Condition task now opens quicker and has less delay between assigning BC’s.
PW-20943	The UMCPSEG CAE exporter has been added to the CAE Solver menu.
PW-20935	Corrected an issue preventing correct Fluent Export of a grid.
PW-20925	Repeated descriptions and a few misspellings have been corrected in the Glyph manual pages.
PW-20917	Suggar++ 2.9.1 could not be used for remote execution
PW-20897	Corrected a misspelling in the User Manual for the Display Attributes feature.
PW-20861	Splitting a quilt caused an unexpected exit.
PW-20856	Using Undo after using File, Import, Grid caused Pointwise to exit.
PW-20865	Improved the transition between the end of T-Rex layers and isotropic cells on connectors using the “Match” boundary condition.
PW-20837	Projection of a domain was taking much longer in V18 than it did in V17.
PW-20827	Import of a UGRID file was requiring excessive memory.
PW-20810	Algebraic Extrusion was failing due to a render issue while using the Total Height Stop Criteria.
PW-20806	Under an unusual circumstance, opening a Pointwise native file caused Pointwise to exit.
PW-20804	A connector Merge operation was causing Pointwise to quit.
PW-20795	The CM-Soft Aero Solver was not including Volume Condition names.
PW-20775	Delay Skew Criteria was not working for a particular block.
PW-20755	Structured blocks were improperly being reported as unbalanced.
PW-20512	The Match BC did not produce the desired results on a symmetry plane.
PW-20400	T-Rex Push Attributes was not working properly for Periodic domains with a T-Rex Match BC applied.
PW-20389	A Step file did not import properly when using the Model Size from the file.
PW-20385	A domain was unnecessarily clustering points.
PW-20341	An unstructured domain failed to initialize.
PW-20231	A block was not able to be initialized when executing a script from batch, but could when opening Pointwise and using the GUI.
PW-19968	The shift+F2 zoom shortcut now works within certain functions such as Edit, Split.
PW-19864	Database import of an IGES file failed to import a surface that should have been included.
PW-19783	An unstructured block with a large dynamic range (6.2) was not able to be initialized.
PW-19744	Examine Now provides the Cell Type function for domains.
PW-19118	An unstructured block was not initializing.
PW-19056	A .STP file failed to import all entities.
PW-18777	The verbosity of Pointwise can be controlled with the Glyph command, “pw::Application get/setVerbosity.”
PW-17871	UGRID hybrid cells and volumes can now be imported.
PW-12827	A Reset button has been added to the Preferences, Background frame.

Platform Support

Minimum Requirements for All Platforms:

2 GB RAM (8 GB recommended)
2 GB disk space
Ethernet card
OpenGL capable color display monitor
1280x1024 screen resolution (4K monitor support now included)
Graphics adapter supporting 3D hardware-accelerated OpenGL and 24-bit RGB double-buffering
Up-to-date graphics accelerator drivers

Note: Pointwise V18.0 R1 and later will not be supported on 32-bit platforms.

	Hardware	64-bit
Microsoft Windows	Intel AMD
Linux	Intel AMD
Mac OS X	Intel

Requirements for All Platforms

Minimum Requirements:

2 GB RAM (8 GB recommended)
2 GB disk space
Ethernet card
OpenGL capable color display monitor
1280x1024 screen resolution (4K monitor support now included)
Graphics adapter supporting 3D hardware-accelerated OpenGL and 24-bit RGB double-buffering
Up-to-date graphics accelerator drivers

Important Notes:

Pointwise does not support 32-bit platforms.
Pointwise does not support remote execution. However, a FAQ with remote execution workarounds is avaiable.

Microsoft Windows

Operating System	64-bit
Windows 7
Windows 8.1
Windows 10

*There is a known incompatibility on Microsoft Windows between Dell Backup & Recovery software and Pointwise V18. If you experience problems opening or saving a file from Pointwise, Dell Backup & Recovery software should be disabled or uninstalled.

Linux

Operating System	Version	64-bit
CentOS	6
Red Hat Enterprise Linux	6
SUSE Enterprise Linux Desktop	12 SP1
Ubuntu Desktop	14.04

Linux Library Dependencies

Listed below are the specific versions of library packages that we have on our test machines where we know Pointwise works. Other dependences (e.g. libGL) are not explicitly listed below as they should be part of any standard install that includes the packages listed below.

CentOS 6.4

expat-2.0.1-11.el6_2
fontconfig-2.8.0-3.el6
freetype-2.3.11-14.el6_3.1
libgcc-4.4.7-4.el6
libstdc++-4.4.7-3.el6
libX11-1.5.0-4.el6
libXau-1.0.6-4.el6
libxcb-1.8.1-1.el6
libXext-1.3.1-2.el6
libXft-2.3.1-2.el6
libXrender-0.9.7-2.el6
zlib-1.2.3-29.el6

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

expat-2.0.1-11.el6_2
fontconfig-2.8.0-5.el6
freetype-2.3.11-15.el6_6.1
libgcc-4.4.7-16.el6
libstdc++-4.4.7-16.el6
libX11-1.6.0-6.el6
libXau-1.0.6-4.el6
libxcb-1.9.1-3.el6
libXext-1.3.2-2.1.el6
libXft-2.3.1-2.el6
libXrender-0.9.8-2.1.el6
zlib-1.2.3-29.el6

SUSE Enterprise Linux Desktop 12 SP1

fontconfig
libbz2-1
libexpat1
libffi4
libfreetype6
libgcc_s1
libglib-2_0-0
libGLU1
libgobject-2_0-0
libgthread-2_0-0
libpcre1
libpng16-16
libstdc++6
libX11-6
libXau6
libxcb1
libXext6
libXft2
libXrender1
libz1

2.11.0-4.19
1.0.6-29.2
2.1.0-17.1
5.3.1+r233831-9.1
2.5.5-7.5.1
5.3.1+r233831-9.1
2.38.2-5.12
9.0.0-15.1
2.38.2-5.12
2.38.2-5.12
8.33-3.314
1.6.8-11.1
5.3.1+r233831-9.1
1.6.2-4.12
1.0.8-4.58
1.10-3.1
1.3.2-3.61
2.3.1-9.32
0.9.8-3.56
1.2.8-5.1

Ubuntu 14.04

libexpat1
libffi6
libfontconfig1
libfreetype6
libgcc1
libpcre3
libpng12-0
libstdc++6
libx11-6
libxau6
libxcb1
libxdmcp6
libxext6
libxft2
libxrender1
zlib1g

2.1.0-4ubuntu1.1
3.1~rc1+r3.0.13-12
2.11.0-0ubuntu4.1
2.5.2-1ubuntu2.5
1:4.9.1-0ubuntu1
1:8.31-2ubuntu2
1.2.50-1ubuntu2.14.04.1
4.8.4-2ubuntu1~14.04.1
2:1.6.2-1ubuntu2
1:1.0.8-1
1.10-2ubuntu1
1:1.1.1-1
2:1.3.2-1
2.3.1-2
1:0.9.8-1
1:1.2.8.dfsg-1ubuntu1