GAMBIT Version 2.2.

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Release Notes

GAMBIT Version 2.2.30Release Notes

GAMBIT 2.2 includes significant improvements in key geometry and meshing operations,
enhancements to existing features, and bug fixes.
NOTE: A list of all known and fixed defects in this release is accessible in the GAMBIT
Release Information section in the Fluent online User Services Center. One of the known
defects involves an application error (crash) upon exit on some Windows operating systems.
The crash does not affect the GAMBIT database and can be ignored. An upgrade to Windows
XP service pack 2 is recommended.
Enhanced Features in GAMBIT 2.2 include:

geometry enhancements, including:

o an upgrade of the ACIS geometry kernel,
o better import of IGES, STEP, Parasolid and native CATIA V4 files,
o improvements to the direct Pro/ENGINEER interface,
o enhanced healing and checking of imported geometry,
o face-connect improvements for automatic handling of gaps and overlaps,
o improvements to the cleanup tools,
o improvements to face-stitching operations,
o improvements to wireframe face creation;
meshing enhancements, including:
o HexCore improvements to handle dangling faces,
o improvements to size-function speed,
o addition of a new size function based on an existing mesh,
o enhancement of the curvature size function to recognize edge curvature,
o improvements to boundary-layer operations,
o improvements to the PAVE meshing tool;
miscellaneous enhancements, including:
o allowed importation of plug-in files
o G/Turbo enhancements,
o new defaults for tetrahedral meshing,
o a new startup icon for the Microsoft Windows desktop,
o the ability to repair corrupt databases,
o improvements to defaults descriptions,
o improved tolerance specification,
o improvements to the geometry summarize and sweep path operations,
o more-informative journal files,
o interpreter enhancements.

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GAMBIT Version 2.2.30

Release Notes

Enhanced Features

Geometry
o The integration of an updated version of ACIS (R12) improves speed and
robustness of all geometric operations.
o New interop translators result in a better import of IGES, STEP, Parasolid, and
native CATIA V4 files. (NOTE: The license file must contain the feature geomtransavailable at no additional costto access the translators).
Improvements will also allow users to obtain upgraded translators as patches
independent of the full GAMBIT release.
o Improvements to the direct Pro/ENGINEER interface include support for ProeWildFire. (NOTE: The direct Pro/ENGINEER interface in GAMBIT 2.2 is
supported for both Pro/ENGINEER 2001 and ProE-Wildfire. The interface with
Wildfire is supported on Windows, Linux, HP, and Sun platforms. The interface
with Pro/Engineer 2001 is supported on all platforms except Linux).
o Healing improvements include a new smooth-geometry option (for example, in
the Smooth/Heal Real Faces command). Geometry smoothing can help replace bad
geometry and/or reduce complexity of the geometry. Tolerant modeling
improvements include options for automatic removal of small edges and sliver
faces.
o The geometry check command is enhanced to allow for early detection of
geometry and topological issues.
o Face-connect functionality is enhanced to support T-Junction splits, which helps
to ensure connectivity among parts with gaps and overlaps.
o Cleanup tools improvements include new tools to detect and eliminate duplicate
geometry and improvements to existing cleanup tools. Duplicate geometry
cleanup include options to detect and fix duplicate/coincident vertices, edges,
faces, and volumes. Improvements to existing tools include better automated
removal of short edges, faster large angle cleanup, and additional face creation
options for cleaning up holes. Cleanup tools defaults are now better organized and
placed in a separate category.
o The face-stitch operation for volume creation is enhanced to accept tolerance
values. In addition, multiple real and/or virtual volumes can be created in a single
operation. When creating a single volume, it is unnecessary to specify more than
one of the faces in the set of faces to be stitched together; GAMBIT automatically
finds and uses the other faces. (NOTE: A default flag is available to
enable/disable this behavior.) When creating multiple volumes in a single
operation, GAMBIT can automatically discard unneeded faces. Both real and
virtual face-stitch operations can handle internal voids and dangling faces.
o Wireframe face creation is enhanced to construct a real face from a set of nonplanar edges using the tolerant functionality.

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Release Notes

Meshing
o The HexCore meshing tool is improved to handle volumes with internal
(dangling) faces.
o Size-function operations are two to five times faster in GAMBIT 2.2 compared to
GAMBIT 2.1. Speed improvements are most significant for proximity and
curvature size functions.
o A new meshed size function is available to ensure a mesh with desired growth
from a pre-meshed boundary.
o The curvature size function now accepts both faces and edges as source entities. It
also allows automatic mesh refinement based on the edge curvature.
o Boundary-layer improvements include smooth height transition for volume
boundary layers, and better element quality near internal corners due to
improvements in angle based smoothing. A default flag is also available to
deactivate size-function calculation during the temporary display of boundary
layers. Imprinting of both volume and surface boundary layers are now controlled
by a single default to ensure consistent boundary layers definition.
o The PAVE meshing tool is improved to better handle variation in mesh size of
premeshed edges. A size function is automatically invoked if the variation
exceeds a limit that can be set by the user. Performance when meshing a group of
faces is also significantly improved. Interval count is automatically adjusted to
satisfy the requirements of even numbers of intervals per loop.

Miscellaneous
o GAMBIT 2.2 allows the importation of plug-in files, which can be used in
conjunction with special GAMBIT functionality to create customized modeling
operations.
o G/Turbo enhancements include an application-specific template for pumps and
automatic volume creation from the turbo file. The application-specific template,
available as a plug-in file, automates the entire process from geometry creation
and meshing to solver settings and the solution.
o New defaults for tetrahedral meshing allow modifications to initialization
attempts and refinement levels in order to improve the success rate of mesh
initialization and refinement.
o GAMBIT 2.2 installation offers a new startup icon for Microsoft Windows
operating systems. The GUI-based launcher supports browsers for easy selection
of working directory and the session identifier. It also stores prior history and also
allows standard startup options.
o Automatic repair of corrupt databases is available in GAMBIT 2.2. The repair
process requires saving the database multiple times. GAMBIT issues a message
indicating database being repaired while reading a corrupt database. Users

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Release Notes

should repeat the save command several times until there are no repair messages.
(NOTE: If a similar message appears while saving a good database, the message
indicates that a problem has been introduced during the last working session and
should be reported as a defect).
o Descriptions of many defaults have been enhanced to include specific values used
by the automatic settings. Documentation also includes the applicable range for
the values to provide a better guidance to users.
o Tolerance specification fields on many forms are improved to be more intuitive.
Each field includes a toggle button to select either an auto or manual option.
For the manual option, the tolerance-value input field is automatically populated
with a default value to provide a guidance for the user.
o Geometry-summarize information is better displayed in the Transcript window to
make the information more intuitive to read and understand. The information
includes face area for real geometry and volume for cad entities. Sweep path
alignment operations are improved to ensure consistent behavior for both real and
virtual sweeps.
o Journal file header is more informative and includes the database version and
platform information.
o Interpreter enhancements include new query functions that return number and
types of mesh elements, angle at a face vertex, and the Pro/E parameters.

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GAMBIT Version 2.2.30

Release Notes

Platform Support Changes

GAMBIT 2.2 (and all later versions) will not be supported on the following platforms.
Platform

Processor/Series

Operating System

32/64 Bit

AMD

Athlon

Red Hat Linux 7.2

32 bit

AMD

Athlon

Red Hat Linux 7.3

32 bit

IBM

Power 3

AIX 4.3.3

32 bit

Compaq

Alpha

Tru64 UNIX 5.0A

64 bit

Compaq

Alpha

Tru64 UNIX 5.1

64 bit

Compaq

Alpha

Tru64 UNIX 5.1A

64 bit

PC-Intel

Pentium

Red Hat Linux 7.2

32 bit

PC-Intel

Pentium

Red Hat Linux 7.3

32 bit

PC-Intel

Pentium

Suse Linux 7.2

32 bit

PC-Intel

Pentium

Suse Linux 7.3

32 bit

PC-Intel

Pentium

Window NT 4.0

32 bit

NOTE: Version 7.1.1 is the supported version of Exceed for GAMBIT 2.2. Exceed versions 8
and 9 are also compatible. A list of all supported platforms for GAMBIT 2.2 is available on
the Fluent Users Services Center.

Fluent Inc., Oct-04

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