Pointwise Release Notes

Version: Pointwise V18.5 Release 1
Release Date: November 2021

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

A function has been added to the unstructured block solver to improve cell quality after initialization. It uses weighted condition number smoothing to change unstructured and voxel block grid point locations to improve cell quality.
Automatic Volume Mesh has been introduced allowing unstructured blocks to be generated automatically for surface meshes by specifying volume meshing extents, shape, and resolution goals.
Automatic Surface Mesh has been enhanced to include user created boundary conditions, enhanced T-Rex performance out of tight corners as well as other improvements.
The slope of database curves and connectors can now be explicitly controlled to enforce tangency, normalcy, or orthogonality.
The Patch command has been enhanced to now provide pending surfaces which maintain slope tangency with the surrounding surface or surfaces, automatically.
A new unstructured algorithm, Thin Surface Interpolation, has been introduced specifically to improve cell structure of thin and tapered domains.
Import and Export upgrades including:

AVMesh V2 export is now supported
Boundary and Volume Conditions as well as standard extensions are now available for UGRID
MFEM has been added to CAE Solvers.
Catia V6 is now supported
Units can be specified for CGNS

Resolved Issues

SPR	Description
PW-13599	Create, Intersect was creating an incomplete intersection.
PW-14273	A surface was not being trimmed correctly using Trim by Surfaces.
PW-20821	A surface was not being correctly trimmed by a plane.
PW-21380	A wing and nacelle were unable to be trimmed with each other.
PW-21531	Trim by Surfaces was did not correctly identify an intersection.
PW-21556	T-Rex initialization in a very large mesh led to an unexpected exit.
PW-22205	A file would encounter an error when being saved that prevented the file from being saved.
PW-22219	Mirroring a block resulted in Negative Jacobians.
PW-22322	An IGES file imported with incorrectly collapsed geometry.
PW-22939	A SLDPRT file was unable to be imported on Linux or Mac.
PW-23017	Two models were unable to be trimmed consistently based upon Model Size.
PW-23145	A T-Rex initialization resulted in floating faces when exported to CFX.
PW-23276	A Match connector between two domains had very large spacing.
PW-23344	Updating the distribution of a connector resulted in an unexpected exit.
PW-23445	A voxel block contained no voxels after initialization.
PW-23490	Copying and Pasting a database and block caused changes to the block.
PW-23494	NSU3D exporter took longer than expected to export a grid.
PW-23495	Mirroring a block and database emptied the block.
PW-23505	The isotropic portion of block initialization was not completing.
PW-23534	SU2 Import now supports volume conditions.
PW-23554	Two glyph commands that could be used for database export produce different results.
PW-23564	Copy/Paste caused erratic behavior in parts of the pasted grid.
PW-23575	Grid, Dimension was re-dimensioning connectors without user input.
PW-23584	Parameter sets were not being exported to the .nmb file format.
PW-23585	Groups of quilts can now be selected via glyph scripting.
PW-23597	Floating connectors in the structured block solver did not snap to new positions.
PW-23599	Information about running in batch on the Windows platform has been added to the user manual.
PW-23611	2D T-Rex had inconsistent initial spacing.
PW-23638	A boundary condition setting was preventing a voxel block from initializing.
PW-23676	A message has been added to the user manual to state that we do not import higher order grids.
PW-23677	When higher order export fails due to a negative jacobian, the value and centroid location of the offending cell are printed to the messages window.
PW-23679	Pointwise hangs while changing the distribution type of several connectors simultaneously on Linux.
PW-23741	The plugin SDK was failing verification in a newer gcc version.
PW-23745	The View Manipulator was not working on Mac when using an external monitor.
PW-23750	T-Rex recombination created overlapping faces.
PW-23793	T-Rex was stopping short adjacent to a symmetry domain.
PW-23851	A Fluent .cas file could not be imported into Pointwise.

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