Pointwise Release Notes

  • Version: Pointwise V18.5 Release 2
  • Release Date: February 2022
  • News Release: TBD

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 new USM3D grid import plugin was implemented.
  • The CRUNCH grid import plugin can now import 3D boundary and volume conditions data.
  • New examine metrics compatible with OMNIS® were added: Adjacent Volume Ratio, Expansion Ratio, and Equi-angular Skewness.
  • Update to the Create, Draw Shapes command: The keyboard hotkeys for the Drawing, Enclosing, Translate, Rotate, Scale, Align to View, and Pivot modes are now persistent while the command is running.
  • The Tab key can now be used to iterate through the options in a pop-up window in Linux and Mac platforms.
  • Consistent labeling for Additive/Subtractive columns between the Automatic Surface Mesh and Automatic Volume Mesh functionalities was implemented.
  • Glyph Manual Pages: New links to the definition of points were added to the manual.

Resolved Issues

SPR Description
PW-23063Automatic Surface Mesh was creating skewed surface cells in some thin surfaces.
PW-23535New USM3D grid import plugin was implemented.
PW-23550New links to the definition of a point were added to the Glyph Manual Pages.
PW-23649Information related to the PCD format was added to the User Manual.
PW-23938An error was occurring while initializing a voxel blocks sharing interfaces with unstructured block.
PW-23952The Edit, Orient command was reporting an incorrect orientation for structured blocks.
PW-23964ANSYS Fluent export information in the User Manual was updated.
PW-23966Automatic Surface Mesh was encountering an error while creating a domain on simple quilt.
PW-23971Automatic Surface Mesh was not correctly refining a symmetry domain based on the influence of a nearby source.
PW-23980Copy, Paste, Rotate was producing incorrect results on a set of two adjacent domains.
PW-23984Glyph scrip was working in 18.4 R3 and it was not working on 18.5 R1.
PW-23987Connector merging operation was not working properly when merging connectors used by periodic domains.
PW-23994Error occurred while projecting connectors onto database curve that resulted in a zero-length projected shape.

Previous Versions

Pointwise V18.5 R1

Platform Support

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

Microsoft Windows

Operating System 64-bit  
Windows 8.1 Windows 8 Compatible
Windows 10 Windows 10 Compatible

*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

macOS

Operating System Version 64-bit
High Sierra 10.13

Other Versions

Pointwise V18.6 R5
Pointwise V18.6 R4
Pointwise V18.6 R3
Pointwise V18.6 R2
Pointwise V18.6 R1
Pointwise V18.5 R2
Pointwise V18.5 R1
Pointwise V18.4 R4
Pointwise V18.4 R3
Pointwise V18.4 R2
Pointwise V18.3 R2
Pointwise V18.3 R1
Pointwise V18.2 R2
Pointwise V18.2 R1
Pointwise V18.1 R2
Pointwise V18.1 R1
Pointwise V18.0 R4
Pointwise V18.0 R3
Pointwise V18.0 R2
Pointwise V18.0 R1