CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
4 March 2010
Product News
Pointwise V16.03 Attacks CAD Interoperability Issues
Pointwise announced the latest release of its Pointwise computational fluid dynamics (CFD) meshing software featuring tools for addressing problems associated with computer aided design (CAD) geometry data. Pointwise's Solid Meshing feature suite can automatically create watertight geometry models without the gaps and overlaps that can cripple the mesh generation process.
"Solid Meshing represents the sharpest tool available to avoid sloppy geometry problems," said John Chawner, Pointwise's president. "Sloppy geometry is going to occur and that means wasted time and money. We've all heard the statistics about the millions of dollars wasted on CAD interoperability problems, such as the annual cost of interoperability problems exceeding the market capitalization of all the CAD companies combined. Solid Meshing is a faster, better alternative to repairing the geometry directly."
Solid Meshing comprises solid models and quilts. Models are watertight collections of surfaces. Quilts are subregions of the geometry that capture engineering intent, simplify the topology, and are meshed as a single unit. The Solid Meshing suite includes tools for trimming and untrimming surfaces; solid model import; and multi-tiered tools for automatic and manual model and quilt assembly. Solids and quilts also can be formed automatically, as part of the CAD file import process.
CAD files often include translation, tolerance and representation errors and incompatibilities resulting in geometry with gaps and overlaps that unnecessarily complicate the meshing process, especially when the geometry errors exceed the mesh size, as is often the case in CFD. Rather than repairing the geometry directly, which can be exceedingly complex, Pointwise's Solid Meshing forms the geometry into a topological solid with gaps implicitly closed.
The new release of Pointwise, Version 16.03, also includes support for the 3D mouse, user-customizable export to CFD solvers, and support for 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows.
Pointwise, Inc.’s Gridgen and Pointwise software generates structured, unstructured and hybrid meshes; interfaces with CFD solvers, such as ANSYS FLUENT, STAR-CD, ANSYS CFX and OpenFOAM as well as many neutral formats, such as CGNS; runs on Windows (Intel and AMD), Linux (Intel and AMD), Mac and Unix, and has scripting languages that can automate CFD meshing. Large manufacturing firms and research organizations worldwide rely on Pointwise as their complete CFD preprocessing solution. More information about Gridgen and Pointwise is available at http://pointwise.com.
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