Pointwise Release Notes

Version: Pointwise V18.3 R2
Release Date: July 2020
News Release: www.pointwise.com/news/2020/Latest-Pointwise-Release-Includes-5X-Faster-Surface-Meshing.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

Voxel blocks can now be created with Symmetry planes. The voxel ability will imprint on the symmetry plane thus creating hexagonal cells that connect to the symmetry plane. This ability is present for existing blocks as well as blocks made in Create, Build Farfield, Voxel.
Control Volume quality metrics have been added to the Examine menu. These are especially useful for NASA FUN3D and Ansys CFX users.
ASCII Plot3D export using double precision is now 16 digits.
Multi-threading has now been incorporated when initializing multiple domains. This also applies to the On Database Entities operation.
Coons Patches now have manual side definition.
Quadrilateral surface cells can now be exported in STL format.
Boundary and Volume Conditions can now be imported from Grid files.
Higher Order Meshes can now handle periodic domains.
When in the CAE, Set BC menu, the layer of a selected domain is now highlighted.

Resolved Issues

SPR	Description
PW-20403	Block initialization took longer than previous versions.
PW-20440	Changing a connector’s distribution resulted in large changes to the connector.
PW-20885	Copy/Mirror introduced faceted surface in geometry.
PW-21545	Periodic domains can now be used for higher order meshes.
PW-21151	An extrusion could not be completed.
PW-21702	Command line execution could not process a file name with more than one period/dot.
PW-21798	A Parasolid file was not being imported correctly
PW-22110	Area Ratio was reporting extremely high (and incorrect) values.
PW-22138	Linear projection was taking longer than anticipated.
PW-22139	The elliptic solver stopped prematurely for domains with interior floating BC’s.
PW-22144	An isotropic block took longer to initialize in 18.3R1 than in 18.2R2
PW-22145	The XML Unstructured example plugin included with the Plugin SDK failed to export correctly.
PW-22150	The Manual Side Definition failed to create a database patch
PW-22151	A distorted database patch is created using Create, Patch.
PW-22153	An OpenFOAM file failed to import.
PW-22154	The FUN3D exporter has been improved to be faster.
PW-22158	A block initialized with an unusable grid.
PW-22166	A concave domain was initializing incorrectly.
PW-22184	Copy/Mirror caused a connector to deform unexpectedly.
PW-22189	Quad Max Warp Angle was able to be set to a invalid value in the Defaults panel.
PW-22190	Copy/Mirror changed the render triangle density of quilts.
PW-22191	File, Export, CAE could cause an unexpected exit with the Exodus exporter.
PW-22240	A .pw file could not be saved.
PW-22244	T-Rex growth profile was not performing as expected on a symmetry domain.
PW-22276	A VRML file was not importing correctly.
PW-22306	A block was able to initialize with the Delaunay algorithm but not the Voxel algorithm.
PW-22313	T-Rex was growing unidirectionally off of a sphere.
PW-22318	Re-extrude lead to an unexpected exit.
PW-22333	Structured grids created previously were not maintaining orthogonality as well as in 18.2 R2.
PW-22337	A CGNS file could not be imported.
PW-22370	An unexpected exit occurred when multiple accelerators were used in rapid succession
PW-22381	A glyph function to select entities interactively was not working correctly.
PW-22387	Checking or un-checking Initialize Interior in the Defualts panel had no effect.
PW-22410	A Fluent .cas file was not imported correctly.
PW-22415	Path extrusion failed in a direction but not its mirror.
PW-22424	The shift+MMB zoom functionality was not behaving as expected.
PW-22442	Model Size was impacting 2D T-Rex layer growth unintentionally.
PW-22457	Revised the user manual entry for periodic domains to make it clearer.
PW-22482	Pointwise intermittently lost contact with RLM due to an error.
PW-22494	An unstructured block initialized with a negative volume cell.
PW-22496	2D T-Rex used on a baffle was preventing a block from exporting.
PW-22530	Pointwise could not open a file.
PW-22542	The getLinkages command in glyph was returning incorrect information for the Python Glyph api.
PW-22604	The out of date icon appears incorrectly next to a block.
PW-22643	Projecting a Bezier curve incorrectly changed the type to Akima.
PW-22648	Pushing Cancel in Edit/Orient took an inordinate amount of time.
PW-22649	Switching between Isolate and All On in the Layers tab took progressively longer for each action.
PW-22662	Pointwise was writing prisms incorrectly for SU2 export.
PW-22690	A script occasionally failed to complete.
PW-22696	Without a volume condition set, the CART3D exporter was assigning a large integer.
PW-22718	Examine, Wall Orthogonality for empty, structured blocks failed to render correctly.
PW-22719	Domain initialization was not being journaled properly in the RC.
PW-22720	A Conic loses it shape after being split.
PW-22738	Sync Spacings was causing connectors to become over-refined.
PW-22800	Sync Spacings caused an unexpected exit.
PW-22825	Add/Remove faces menu quits responding.
PW-22841	Initialization of a convex domain caused an unexpected exit.

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
macOS	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 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
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
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