Pointwise
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Pointwise
Pointwise is a commercial mesh generation software product from Pointwise, Inc. in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. The product debuted in 2007.
The current production release is Version 17.3 R1, released in February 2015.
Mesh Types
Pointwise can generate the following types of meshes.
- Structured quad and hex (aka mapped mesh)
- Unstructured tri and tet
- Hybrid prism, tet, hex, pyramid
- Overset (structured and unstructured)
Meshing Techniques
Pointwise's mesh generation employs the following algorithms.
- Elliptic PDE smoothing
- Laplace, Thomas-Middlecoff, Steger-Sorenson, von Lavante-Hilgenstock-White control function formulations
- Hyperbolic PDE-based extrusion
- Steger's formulation for hex extrusion
- Algebraic extrusion
- Prism and hex extrusion using translate, rotate, path, and normal methods
- Modified Delaunay
- Tri and tet meshing with smoothing and diagonal swapping
- Advancing Front
- For triangular surface meshing
- Anisotropic Tetrahedral Extrusion (T-Rex)
- Extrusion of right-angle-included tets with boundary layer and wake clustering and optional prism and hex recombination
Geometry Support
Pointwise's geometry kernel supports both analytic (i.e. NURBS, CAD) and faceted (i.e. STL, VRML) formats.
Pointwise imports CAD geometry from the following formats.
- IGES
- STEP
- ACIS
- CATIA V4 & V5
- Pro/E
- NX (formerly Unigraphics)
- Parasolid
- SolidWorks
Faceted geometry can be imported from:
- STL
- VRML
- NASTRAN
- other
Geometry may be exported to IGES.
Geometry can be created in Pointwise. The following geometry primitives are available.
- Surface of revolution
- Ruled surface
- Coons surface
- Sweep surface
- Fillet
- Plane
- Line
- Curve
- Circle
- Conic
- Offset Curve
- Intersection
- Point
Pointwise's geometry kernel is a full B-Rep solid modeler. Geometry is assembled into a solid both automatically and manually as a means of dealing with gaps and overlaps between adjacent surfaces.
CFD Solver Interfaces
Pointwise has built-in support for the following flow solvers.
- AcuSolve
- ADPAC
- AERO-F
- ANSYS CFX
- ANSYS FLUENT
- CFD++
- CFDShip-Iowa
- CFL3D
- CGNS v3
- CNSFV
- Cobalt
- COMO
- CRUNCH
- DTNS
- Edge
- Exodus II
- FALCON
- FANS
- FDNS/UNIC
- FieldView
- FrontFlow
- FUN3D
- Gambit Neutral
- GASP
- Gmsh
- Gridgen Generic
- GridPro
- INCA
- Kestrel v1.0
- LAURA
- NASTRAN
- NCC
- NPARC
- NSAERO
- NSU3D
- OpenFOAM
- Overflow
- PATRAN
- PHOENICS
- PLOT3D
- PyFR
- SCRYU
- SC/Tetra
- ShipIR
- Splitflow
- STAR-CCM+
- STAR-CD
- STL
- SU2
- TACOMA
- TASCflow
- TAU
- TEAM
- Tecplot
- TETREX
- Thermal Desktop
- UCD
- UGRID
- USM3D
- VRML
- VSAERO
- WIND
- WIND-US
- XPATCH
Pointwise also includes a Plugin API with which users can write their own CFD solver export function and have it included in the software at runtime.
Scripting
Pointwise includes a Tcl-based scripting language called Pointwise Glyph that can be used to write macros and templates for automating all or parts of the meshing process.
Supported Platforms
Pointwise supports both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the following platforms.
- Windows
- Linux
- Mac OS X
