“Building on the integration of overset grid assembly in our previous release, we have enhanced Pointwise's ability to generate structured overset grids,” said John Steinbrenner, Pointwise's vice president of research and development.

The extrusion of the mesh is based on the solution of hyperbolic partial differential equations. Steinbrenner added that the release will offer more options for boundary conditions and topologies to control the extrusion of these hexahedral meshes.

The release will also focuses on the adoption of the Leap Motion sensor. For those not in the know, the Leap Motion sensor will allow users to pan, zoom and rotate their mesh using hand gestures alone.

Though the hand motion tool does seem cool (à la Ironman movies), it will be interesting to see if the sensor can offer the pinpoint accuracy and functionality already offered by a mouse. For those interested, Pointwise is offering a chance to win a Leap Motion if you follow this link. In the meantime, if you use one and can think of a use case for the Leap Motion, please comment below.

Other improvements to Pointwise 17.3 include:

• Support for AERO-F from CMSoft
• ANSYS Fluent
• Exodus II
• Thermal Desktop from C&R Technologies
• User enhancements

Version 17.3 Bug Fix Release

Two high priority bugs forced Pointwise to make a quick new release of version 17.3. The first bug prevents “non-positive volume” errors when exporting to ANSYS Fluent. The second fix eliminates regions of large tetrahedral elements in certain isotropic tetrahedral meshes.

To download the bug-fix release follow this link.

Other fixes include:

• Coordinate queries of circle centers
• Boundary condition for adjacent T-Rex grids
• Crash fixes for editing Bezier segments
• Typos

Article modified on 06/18/15