The new ITEM Prepare Geometry Panel. Potential problems can be diagnosed and resolved using a browser-like interface.

Released November 20, 2007

The CUBIT Team is pleased to announce Version 11.0 of the CUBIT Geometry and Mesh Generation Toolkit. Although many new capabilities have been introduced, the new Immersive Topology Environment for Meshing (ITEM) is the highlight and focus of this release.

The Immersive Topology Environment for Meshing (ITEM)

ITEM is a new software tool that simplifies and guides the user through the process of building and preparing a CAD model.  In many cases, the geometry preparation phase for modeling and simulation can take a tremendous amount of human time to diagnose and build an appropriate analysis model.  ITEM integrates model building expertise within a smart system that will diagnose potential problems and visually preview specific solutions that can be easily executed. 

ITEM incorporates a new wizard-like environment that the user can step through as the application diagnoses potential problems with the CAD model and previews specific solutions to be resolved. 
Many of the solutions developed in ITEM are exclusive to this tool and represent a significant advance is pre-processing technology for analysis. For example, the ability to automatically rebuild the local topology of a solid model to simplify the model for analysis, the ability to adjust local topology to correct for misalignments in assemblies as well as the ability to present alternatives for geometry decomposition to admit a hexahedral mesh topology are all significant advances in this field.   

ITEM has already undergone extensive usability testing by analysts at Sandia National Laboratories with tremendous positive response.  Improvements to the system are already planned and underway based on feedback from the engineering analysts that have used it.  The process introduced with ITEM is a promising new paradigm on which new improvements in geometry and meshing technology will be based for the foreseeable future.

For more information contact Steve Owen sjowen@sandia.gov