Pointwise Release Notes

Version: Pointwise V18.4 Release 2
Release Date: October 2020
News Release: www.pointwise.com/news/2020/pointwise-introduces-intelligent-automatic-surface-meshing

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

Unstructured domains can be generated automatically using the first in a suite of tools we call Flashpoint for models by specifying surface meshing resolution goals and grid quality constraints. In addition, target edge lengths can be visualized prior to meshing, local sizing can be applied for specific quilts, and anisotropic stretching enabled or disabled depending on boundary curvature classification.
A new option has been added to the Diagonalize command which links a structured domain to the newly created triangulated unstructured domain. Any changes to the connectors of either results in both being updated immediately in a manner that retains the structured nature of the unstructured domain.
Diagonalized domains can now automatically replace structured domains in an unstructured block.
The Size Field tab has been added to Grid, Solve for domains. Grid entities and sources can now influence domain initialization without the domain being part of a block.
Aspect Ratio and Maximum Aspect Ratio have been added as T-Rex boundary conditions. These will set the initial step size to a specific aspect ratio either based upon the largest cell on the edge, or the cell itself.
The import and export of the Stanford PLY and Wavefront OBJ discrete file formats are now supported for both grid and database.
Pointwise tutorials have now been split off to their own download file. This dramatically decreased the size of the Pointwise installer to under 300 MB.
Glyph functions have been added to print selection links to XYZ points, entities, and files in the Messages window.
Boundary and Volume Condition data can be imported for some formats. The user manual reflects these capabilities.

Resolved Issues

SPR	Description
PW-17985	Two database models were unable to be trimmed by a plane.
PW-18654	An incorrect error was being printed when three models failed to join.
PW-19670	Errors for each model that failed to assemble were not being printed.
PW-20103	Wing-Pylon tutorial now has full layers developed around the entire wing.
PW-21989	A large number of boundary conditions caused a Pointwise file to take excessively long to open.
PW-22206	A Pointwise file was unable to be opened because the process was being incorrectly divided among too many processors.
PW-22275	CAE Export would fail depending on the Full Layers and Push Attributes T-Rex parameters
PW-22293	A volume grid was not initializing T-Rex layers correctly resulting in large maximum included angles.
PW-22535	Fluent files with slight variations to format would not import
PW-22602	There was a typo in the glyph reference manual that prevented a piece of code from being executed when run in Pointwise.
PW-22668	Panels were disappearing on a Mac when Pointwise was being hidden.
PW-22786	Misaligned volume cells in a problematic corner cause CAE export error
PW-22853	FUN3D export creates phantom internal face cell
PW-22866	Typo on the T-Rex boundary conditions page of the User Manual
PW-22872	Plugin fails to compile on MacOSX
PW-22883	An unexpected exit occurred when appending an older Pointwise project file
PW-22893	Removed distributions of Fortran and Intel math libraries no longer supported
PW-22898	Splitting an unstructured block was causing an adjacent unstructured block to be emptied
PW-22925	Free-stream, Transient, and Attach STAR-CD boundary conditions are now exported
PW-22950	Accessing panels and menus was taking longer than expected for a medium (3GB) file.
PW-22958	A connector used in T-Rex was ignoring the Match boundary condition.
PW-22960	Added support for importing surface-only ANSYS Fluent grid files
PW-22961	Progress messages were not available when exporting a high order mesh in batch mode
PW-23023	Initializing a voxel block led to an unintentional exit
PW-23048	A voxel block was incorrectly reporting a “Voxel block is invalid” error.
PW-23054	With only a source selected, entering the Build Farfield, Voxel tool failed to create a farfield.
PW-23065	A voxel block was not initializing with the, “One or more entities could not be initialized.”
PW-23068	An intersection that worked in previous versions stopped being recognized in V18.3R2.
PW-23086	Fixed an issue where some unstructured block initialization failures would not trigger problem coordinates.
PW-23089	In Create, Patch, selecting specific boundaries was causing an unexpected exit.
PW-23095	A block was shown to be initialized, however, the interior cells could not be examined.
PW-23096	A domain could be re-initialized but would not update until Apply was used.
PW-23099	The Grid, Solve, Size Field panel had an inconsistency between a decimal and a comma when using an alternate numbering convention.
PW-23127	The Examine drop down menu in Grid, Solve would become empty and unselectable after block initialization.
PW-23128	A source cloud caused strange adaption behavior to domains when using Initialize Boundary Only.
PW-23158	A structured extrusion caused a memory allocation error followed by an unexpected exit.
PW-23227	Import of an OBJ file with a 45 degree split angle failed.
PW-23228	Edit, Project was failing to project domains.

Platform Support

	Hardware	64-bit
Microsoft Windows	Intel AMD
Linux	Intel AMD
macOS	Intel

Requirements for All Platforms

Minimum Requirements:

At least 16 GB RAM (64 GB recommended)
At least 2 GB disk space (512 GB recommended)
Ethernet card
OpenGL compatible monitor with at least 1280x1024 screen resolution (up to 4K)
Dedicated professional graphics card supporting 3D hardware-accelerated OpenGL and 24-bit RGB double-buffering
Up-to-date graphics card 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	7
Red Hat Enterprise Linux	7.4
SUSE Enterprise Linux Desktop	12.3
Ubuntu Desktop	16.04

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 7

bzip2-libs-1.0.6-13.el7
expat-2.1.0-8.el7
fontconfig-2.10.95-7.el7
freetype-2.8-14.el7
glibc-2.17-307.el7.1
libdrm-2.4.60-3.el7
libgcc-4.8.5-4.el7
libpng-2:1.5.13-7.el7_2
libselinux-2.2.2-6.el7
libstdc++-4.8.5-4.el7
libX11-1.6.3-2.el7
libXau-1.0.8-2.1.el7
libxcb-1.13-1.el7
libXdamage-1.1.4-4.1.el7
libXext-1.3.3-3.el7
libXfixes-5.0.1-2.1.el7
libxkbcommon-0.7.1-3.el7
libxkbcommon-x11-0.7.1-3.el7
libxshmfence-1.2-1.el7
libXxf86vm-1.1.3-2.1.el7
mesa-libGL-10.6.5-3.20150824.el7
mesa-libglapi-10.6.5-3.20150824.el7
mesa-libGLU-9.0.0-4.el7
pcre-8.32-15.el7
xcb-util-0.4.0-2.el7
xcb-util-image-0.4.0-2.el7
xcb-util-keysyms-0.4.0-1.el7
xcb-util-renderutil-0.3.9-3.el7
xcb-util-wm-0.4.1-5.el7
xz-libs-5.1.2-12alpha.el7
zlib-1.2.7-18.el7

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4

bzip2-libs-1.0.6-13.el7
expat-2.1.0-10.el7_3
fontconfig-2.10.95-11.el7
freetype-2.8-14.el7
glibc-2.17-196.el7
libdrm-2.4.74-1.el7
libgcc-4.8.5-16.el7
libpng-2:1.5.13-7.el7_2.x86_64
libselinux-2.5-11.el7
libstdc++-4.8.5-16.el7
libX11-1.6.5-1.el7
libXau-1.0.8-2.1.el7
libxcb-1.12-1.el7
libXdamage-1.1.4-4.1.el7
libXext-1.3.3-3.el7
libXfixes-5.0.3-1.el7
libxkbcommon-0.7.1-1.el7
libxkbcommon-x11-0.7.1-1.el7
libxshmfence-1.2-1.el7
libXxf86vm-1.1.4-1.el7
mesa-libGL-17.0.1-6.20170307.el7
mesa-libglapi-17.0.1-6.20170307.el7
pcre-8.32-17.el7
xcb-util-0.4.0-2.el7
xcb-util-image-0.4.0-2.el7
xcb-util-keysyms-0.4.0-1.el7
xcb-util-renderutil-0.3.9-3.el7
xcb-util-wm-0.4.1-5.el7
zlib-1.2.7-17.el7

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2

bzip2-libs-1.0.6-26.el8
expat-2.2.5-3.el8
fontconfig-2.13.1-3.el8
freetype-2.9.1-4.el8
glibc-2.28-101.el8
libgcc-8.3.1-5.el8
libglvnd-1.2.0-6.el8
libglvnd-glx-1.2.0-6.el8
libpng-1.6.34-5.el8
libstdc++-8.3.1-5.el8
libuuid-2.32.1-22.el8
libX11-1.6.8-3.el8
libX11-xcb-1.6.8-3.el8
libXau-1.0.8-13.el8
libxcb-1.13.1-1.el8
libXext-1.3.3-9.el8
libxkbcommon-0.9.1-1.el8
libxkbcommon-x11-0.9.1-1.el8
xcb-util-0.4.0-10.el8
xcb-util-image-0.4.0-9.el8
xcb-util-keysyms-0.4.0-7.el8
xcb-util-renderutil-0.3.9-10.el8
xcb-util-wm-0.4.1-12.el8
zlib-1.2.11-13.el8

SUSE Enterprise Linux Desktop 12.3

fontconfig
glibc
libbz2-1
libdrm2
libexpat1
libfreetype6
libgcc_s1
libpng16-16
libstdc++6
libX11-6
libX11-xcb1
libXau6
libxcb-dri2-0
libxcb-dri3-0
libxcb-glx0
libxcb-icccm4
libxcb-image0
libxcb-keysyms1
libxcb-present0
libxcb-randr0
libxcb-render-util0
libxcb-render0
libxcb-shape0
libxcb-shm0
libxcb-sync1
libxcb-util1
libxcb-xfixes0
libxcb-xinerama0
libxcb-xkb1
libxcb1
libXdamage1
libXext6
libXfixes3
libxkbcommon-x11-0
libxkbcommon0
libxshmfence1
libXxf86vm1
libz1
Mesa-libGL1
Mesa-libglapi0

Ubuntu 16.04

libc6-2.23-0ubuntu3
libdrm2-2.4.67-1
libexpat1-2.1.0-7
libfontconfig1-2.11.94-0ubuntu1
libfreetype6-2.6.1-0.1ubuntu2
libgcc1-1:6.0.1-0ubuntu1
libgl1-mesa-glx-11.2.0-1ubuntu2
libglapi-mesa-11.2.0-1ubuntu2
libglu1-mesa-9.0.0-2.1
libpng12-0-1.2.54-1ubuntu1
libstdc++6-5.3.1-14ubuntu2
libx11-6-2:1.6.3-1ubuntu2
libx11-xcb1-2:1.6.3-1ubuntu2
libxau6-1:1.0.8-1
libxcb-dri2-0-1.11.1-1ubuntu1
libxcb-dri3-0-1.11.1-1ubuntu1
libxcb-glx0-1.11.1-1ubuntu
libxcb-icccm4-0.4.1-1ubuntu1
libxcb-image0-0.4.0-1build1
libxcb-keysyms1-0.4.0-1
libxcb-present0-1.11.1-1ubuntu1
libxcb-randr0-1.11.1-1ubuntu1
libxcb-render-util0-0.3.9-1
libxcb-render0-1.11.1-1ubuntu1
libxcb-shape0-1.11.1-1ubuntu1
libxcb-shm0-1.11.1-1ubuntu1
libxcb-sync1-1.11.1-1ubuntu1
libxcb-util1-0.4.0-0ubuntu3
libxcb-xfixes0-1.11.1-1ubuntu1
libxcb-xinerama0-1.11.1-1ubuntu1
libxcb-xkb1-1.11.1-1ubuntu1
libxcb1-1.11.1-1ubuntu1
libxdamage1-1:1.1.4-2
libxdmcp6-1:1.1.2-1.1
libxext6-2:1.3.3-1
libxfixes3-1:5.0.1-2
libxkbcommon-x11-0-0.5.0-1ubuntu2
libxkbcommon0-0.5.0-1ubuntu2
libxshmfence1-1.2-1
libxxf86vm1-1:1.1.4-1
zlib1g-1:1.2.8.dfsg-2ubuntu4