Introduction

This is the programmer reference documentation for the Fidelity Pointwise Plugin SDK v0100r17.

To simplify plugin development, an SDK has been created that wraps the low-level API details behind a convienent set of data structures and C function calls. Or, if you prefer, you can implement your plugin using the C++ variant of the SDK.

This document uses various shorthand notations as listed below.

• ... - the folder containing the PluginSDK folder. For example, ".../PluginSDK/src" is shorthand for "/your/development/location/PluginSDK/src/".
• <platform> - The build machine. One of win64, linux_x86_64, or macosx.
• <build> - The build type. One of Debug, Release.

Additional Reference Materials

In addition to this Fidelity Pointwise Plugin SDK reference, there are other materials available that will help you understand plugin development.

• Webcasts
  • An Introduction to Pointwise Plugin Development
• PDF documents
  • CAE PluginSDK 101
  • UGM 2013 - Using Plugins to Streamline Your Process
• Blog posts
  • Dr. Strangegrid or: How I Learned to Stop Waiting and Write a CAE Plugin
  • Understanding the Pointwise Grid Model API (Part 1)
  • Understanding the Pointwise Grid Model API (Part 2)
  • Plugin How-To: Obtaining Face Counts
  • Plugin How-To: Adding Solver Attributes
  • Plugin How-To: Porting an existing Plugin to a New SDK
  • Search Fidelity Pointwise blog for all Plugin SDK related posts
• Other
  • The SDK Implementation.

How to Create a Plugin

You must first download the Fidelity Pointwise Plugin SDK from the Fidelity Pointwise website. To install, unzip/extract the contents of the downloaded archive to your development location. The archive will create a root folder named PluginSDK. The Introduction to Pointwise Plugin Development webcast contains details on downloading and setting up the Fidelity Pointwise Plugin SDK.

Follow the "quick list" below to build a Plugin using the SDK.

1. Create a plugin project
2. Configure the plugin
3. Implement the plugin
   • Implement using the CAE Plugin C API
   • Implement using the CAE Plugin C++ API
   • Implement using the Grid Import Plugin C API
4. Build the plugin

TIP: If you intend to build on linux_x86_64 or macosx machines, the execute permissions on SDK scripts will only be preserved if you extract from a tar.gz archive on unix or macosx.

TIP: A complete copy of this on-line documentation is bundled with the SDK download. To access the SDK documentation locally, open .../PluginSDK/docs/index.html in a web browser.

SDK Downloads

Download the Fidelity Pointwise Plugin SDK from Fidelity-Pointwise SDK hosting page. Be careful to choose the SDK version that is compatible with your Fidelity Pointwise installation. See SDK Release Notes for change details.

SDK Release Notes

• Changes in 1.0 R17 (current release)
  • Added support for polyhedron and polygon elements.
  • Added struct PWGM_POLYELEMDATA
  • Added PwElemDataCastToPoly()
  • Added helper function PwModNdxBlkCondition()
  • Added helper function PwModNdxDomCondition()
  • Added helper function PwModNdxElemDataMod()
  • Added helper function PwModNdxElemDataModEnum()
  • Added helper function PwModNdxVertDataMod()
  • Added helper function PwModStreamFacesAnyOrder()
  • Added helper function PwModStreamBoundaryFacesOnly()
  • Added CaeUnsGridModel::patchElementCount()
  • Added CaeUnsElementData::ElementType::Polyhedron
  • Added CaeUnsElementData::ElementType::Polygon
  • Added CaeUnsElementData::walkPolyhedronFaces()
• Changes in 1.0 R16
  • Fixed memory leak in pwpCwdPush().
  • Reworked directory buffer allocation to use std::unique_ptr<> for lifetime management.
  • Added function pwpSetCurDir().
• Changes in 1.0 R15
  • Reworked CAE Plugin progress reporting API to eliminate extra step.
  • Added function caeuPublishHighOrderValueDefinitions() to publish attributes needed for HO export and eliminates duplicate, cut-paste code in plugins.
  • Added function caeuPublishMeshLinkValueDefinitions() and updated plugins and SDK accordingly.
  • Removed unused/undefined function PWP_BOOL caeuCombineAnisotropic().
  • Fixed invalid HO range from 1-5 to 1-4.
  • Added non-const version of PwpFile & runtimeFile().
  • Fixed doxygen issues in PwpFile.h.