PicoGK v1.5.0

[LinKayser]

Dear all,

I just finished PicoGK v1.5.0 — I added a lot of functionality related to working with vector fields, scalars and the exchange with simulation packages using OpenVDB. Because a computational model knows a lot more about the object it is creating than just the geometry, it can automatically add all the information necessary to feed into a simulation package. This is particularly true, if the sim is using the Lattice-Boltzmann CFD method, because the essentially use voxels.

As we work with simulation vendors at LEAP 71, we will probably add more functionality in the coming weeks, but it is a start.

Full release notes below.

Enjoy,
Lin

PicoGK v1.5.0

PicoGK v1.5.0 is a major update. The focus of this release is the introduction of field data types for scalar fields and vector fields. Using these types, you can interface with simulation packages, and read the results back to build feedback loops in your software.

• NEW: New data types for scalar fields and vector fields.
• NEW: Support for reading/writing scalar fields and vector fields to OpenVDB
• NEW: Access to OpenVDB field metadata in Voxels, ScalarField, VectorField
• NEW: Library info, voxel size, PicoGK classes etc. all saved to OpenVDB metadata
• NEW: Added example to show usage of fields
• NEW: Added example to show how to exchange simulation setup information using OpenVDB and multiple field types
• NEW: Added LEAP 71 QuasiCrystal library to examples, which allows you to build aperiodic 2D and 3D structures (Penrose Tiles and Quasicrystals)
• NEW: Viewer now supports adding arrow heads to polylines
• NEW: Viewer now supports adding a cross at the end of a polyline
• NEW: VoxelUtils class has functions to count active voxels, extract surface normals.
• NEW: Voxel slices can be output as grayscale and black and white
• NEW: Grayscale image now has a function to determine whether it contains any active pixels
• NEW: Added HLS and HSV color types (allows you to easily desaturate etc. colors)
• NEW: Example to show how to load an STL file and prepare it for printing
• NEW: Added function to find project source path
• NEW: Added experimental Voxels.Gaussian(), Voxels.Median(), and Voxels.Mean() functions to average/blur a voxel field. These are to be considered experimental at this point, as we are not sure if the results are robust enough across multiple voxel sizes, to be useful for engineering.
• FIX: Voxel insertion/removal into the viewer was not thread-safe
• CHANGE: Added asserts to make sure NaN values inserted into a bounding box throw an alert

[mosri]

What simulation vendors are you considering?