Release Notes for Coreform Cubit 2022.4

Coreform is pleased to announce the release of Coreform Cubit 2022.4, which includes an updated geometry kernel, improved meshing and geometry features, and expanded Python interface functionality. (Download Coreform Cubit here.)

Released: 14 April 2022

Table of Contents

U-splines

Graphical User Interface

Meshing

Geometry

Sculpt

Graphics, Utilities, etc.

    U-splines

    Coreform Cubit now supports U-spline construction on volumes meshed with the following mesh schemes:

    • Map
    • SubMap
    • Sweep
    • Sphere
    • Polyhedron
    • TetPrimitive

      Graphical User Interface

      The right click menu now provides an option to select entities that share the same name. It will select entities that have the same prefix up to the “@” character.

        Select chamfer chain

        When selecting a chamfer surface, the ‘select chamfer chain’ option is available in the right-click context menu.

          Meshing

          New Mass Increase Ratio metric added to Cubit

          The Mass Increase Ratio metric is based on the timestep metric and can be used as a guide to determine how much an element’s mass can be scaled during analysis, to typically increase timestep. Users specify a minimum ‘target timestep’ and then use this metric to see how much an element’s mass will be scaled by to meet the specified timestep. Available for use on tets and hexes.

          Geometry-Aware Spider Blocks

          If geometry (surface|curve|vertex) is referenced when creating spider blocks with the command

          [Vertex <id> | Node <id>] Spider {Surface|Curve|Vertex|Face|Tri|Node} <range> [preview][Element Type{ bar | bar2 | bar3 | BEAM | beam2 | beam3 | truss | truss2 | truss3 }]

          the spider block is linked to that geometry, allowing the spider to update/regenerate the BAR elements if the mesh on the geometry is delete, remeshed, or translated.

          Python API

          Improved Python interface

          A single script file can now support both Python statements and Coreform Cubit commands. Additionally, the script windows in the user interface are consolidated into one, and the console version of Coreform Cubit now supports Python. Batch processing with scripts can now be done using Python syntax, Coreform Cubit syntax, or both. The command window in Coreform Cubit can be switched between a Python or Coreform Cubit mode either by pushing a GUI button, or by issuing #!python or #!cubit statements. Using the console version of Coreform Cubit is now recommended when running scripts in non-interactive batch processes. The following image illustrates the new Command window containing both Python and Coreform Cubit syntax.

          For more information see: Command Line Workspace

          New Python API for hole, chamfer, blend feature identification

          Finding hole, chamfer and blend features is now possible using a Python script. The new APIs are: get_surface_hole_collections, get_chamfer_chain_collections, get_blend_chain_collections. Each of these APIs will accept a radius or thickness threshold value. These functions may be useful if wanting to find features and remove them in a script.

          For more information see: Python API

          Geometry

          ACIS kernel updated to Version 2021.1.0.1

          The ACIS geometry kernel has been updated to Version 2021.1.0.1.

          Note: Changes to the ACIS kernel can result in changes in entity IDs, which may break journal files that rely on entity IDs. For mission-critical applications, we encourage users to either:

          • use IDless journal files, or
          • use the Python API to create ID-less Python scripts.

          Sculpt

          New Sculpt options

          • stitch_parallel option combines parallel files when no Nemesis data is included
          • match_sidesets_nodeset to more precisely define boundary between sides when using ‘match_sidesets’ option.
          • material_name, sideset_name, and nodeset_name added to define names on materials, sidesets, and nodesets respectively.
          • sideset and nodeset to allow for user-defined sidesets and nodesets based on xyz bounding box boundaries.
          • large_exodus to generate output Exodus file(s) to allow IDs greater than 2^31 (2.14 billion).
          • input_mesh option under the gen_sidesets option. Used with the input_mesh option where an Exodus file is used as the base grid. Only sidesets and nodesets defined in the input Exodus mesh are transferred to the output mesh.

          Graphics, Utilities, etc.

          Enhancements to free entity selection

          The ability to select free surfaces (sheet bodies) has been added to the command

          [surface <id_list>] [curve <id_list>] [vertex <id_list>] [add|remove]

          Added support for Corvid Velodyne files

          Cubit now supports exporting files for use in Corvid Velodyne, via the command

          export velodyne '<filename>' [overwrite]

          New CubitInterface functions

          CubitInterface is Cubit’s Python module, which provides extensive capability for querying and modifying data in Cubit. The following functions were added to CubitInterface for version 2022.4.

          Function Name Description
          get_total_bounding_box Get the bounding box for a list of entities.
          gather_surfaces_by_orientation Gathers connected surfaces to those specified, that use shared curves in an opposite sense.
          get_overlapping_surfaces_bodies Returns a list of lists of overlapping surfaces. First surface in each list overlaps with all others in that list.
          get_chamfer_surfaces Get the list of chamfer surfaces for a list of volumes
          get_chamfer_chains Returns the chamfer chains for a surface
          get_blend_chain_collections Returns the collections of surfaces that comprise blend chains in the specified volumes. Filter by radius threshold
          get_chamfer_chain_collections Returns the collections of surfaces that comprise chamfers in the specified volumes. Filter by thickness of chamfer
          get_overlapping_curves For every occurance of two overlapping curves, two curve IDs are returned.
          get_overlapping_surfaces_surface Get the list of overlapping surfaces for a single surface
          get_volume_gaps For every occurance of a gap between volumes, two surfaces IDs are returned.
          get_coincident_entity_pairs Get the list of coincident vertex-vertex, vertex-curve, and vertex-surface pairs and distances from a list of volumes
          get_nearby_volumes_volume Get the list of nearby volumes for a single volume within a specified distance
          get_blunt_tangency_depth get default depth value for blunt tangency operation
          is_chamfer_surface Return whether a given surface is a chamfer
          measure_between_entities Returns the distance between two specified entities
          get_tetmesh_growth_factor
          get_tetmesh_parallel
          get_tetmesh_num_anisotropic_layers
          get_tetmesh_optimization_level
          get_tetmesh_insert_mid_nodes
          get_tetmesh_optimize_mid_nodes
          get_tetmesh_optimize_overconstrained_tets
          get_tetmesh_optimize_overconstrained_edges
          get_tetmesh_minimize_slivers
          get_tetmesh_minimize_interior_points
          get_tetmesh_relax_constraints          		 Retrieve the current tetmesh global settings (Meshgems)
          get_trimesh_tar
          get_min_size
          get_trimesh_geometry_sizing
          get_trimesh_num_layers
          get_trimesh_split_edges
          get_trimesh_tiny_length
          get_trimesh_ridge_angle          		 Retrieve the current trimesh global settings (Meshgems)
          get_all_ids_from_name Get all IDs of a geometry type with the prefix given by string.
          get_hole_surfaces Given a surface, returns all adjacent surface defining a hole.
          get_surface_hole_collections Given a volume(s), returns the collections of surfaces that define holes.
          is_hole_surface Return whether the surface is part of a hole.
          best_edge_to_collapse_interior_node Given a node owned by a surface, returns the id of the best edge to collapse, so that the node is no longer on the surface.
          get_continuous_curves Gets a list of continuous curves that have tangents with 180 degrees +/- and defined tolerance.
          get_n_largest_distances_between_meshes Computes the ‘n’ largest distance from the nodes of the first entity to the elements of the second