Harpoon 7.2 improves on v7.0 with particular focus on Boundary Layer heights. Previously, Boundary Layers have been restricted in height to help with the overall cell quality. V7.2 unlocks these limits and gives the user much more control over the way in which these layers are built.
To find out more about Harpoon's success stories, take a look at our case studies
Periscope 8.2 can interrogate the same database files which it creates. This allows data to be extracted from thousands of databases extremely quickly which is ideal for feeding AI/ML computations. V8.2 also has an impoved OpenFOAM reader for distributed data.
The viewer can now do double deltas in both 2D and 3D.
Find out more about Periscope
Harpoon 7.0 introduces a new meshing scheme controlled by user defined data. The mesh will follow the contours of the imported windtunnel to produce non-orthogonal base meshes including curved ones.
In addition, aligment zones are introduced to change the local mesh orientation.
To find out more about Harpoon's success stories, take a look at our case studies
Periscope 8.0 allows the creation of more complex variables. Periscope has, for a long time, been able to create new variables but has been limited to predefined ones. V8.0 introduces a new equation decoder which gives the user much more control.
The viewer is enhanced by the introduction of User Defined Tiles (UDT). These allow the user to decide what is shown where.
Find out more about Periscope
Periscope 7.4 allows the creation of variable step, arbitrary clipped movies.
The graph management in the viewer is now more sophisticated giving the user much more control.
The 3D model rendering has been improved and arbitrary clips can now be performed on the model.
In addition, jpegs can be automatically export using scene files.
Find out more about Periscope
Harpoon 6.6 continues the mesh quality improvement seen in previous versions.
The cell quality in the base mesh and the boundary layer has been improved for both the Poly mesher.
In addition, boundary layer on interior walls between volumes can now inherit nearby layers.
To find out more about Harpoon's success stories, take a look at our case studies
Harpoon 6.4 is a significant improvement on the previous version.
The cell quality in the base mesh and the boundary layer has been improved for both the Poly mesher.
In addition, refinement zone expansion is now more accurate.
To find out more about Harpoon's success stories, take a look at our case studies
Periscope 7.2 introduces more control in the viewer
The 3D model detail may now be controlled and graphs can be displayed on a part per part basis.
The viewer also allows local integration for contiguous clip sections.
Windtunnel data can be easily saved with the database or appended at a later time.
In addition, interactive streams can be coloured by any variable.
Find out more about Periscope
Periscope 7.0 introduces even more interactivity in the viewer.
Fully interacitve 3D LIC/SLIC is now available in the viewer for both steady state and transient cases.
The viewer also now allows the creation of steady state and transient isosurfaces.
In addition, bookmarks can be saved to help annotate the database and share knowledge between colleagues.
In addition, interactive streams can be coloured by any variable.
Find out more about Periscope
Harpoon 6.2 allows the new Poly mesher to be created on multiple cores making Harpoon even faster than before.
The cell quality for the Poly mesher, including the boundary layer, has also been improved.
To find out more about Harpoon's success stories, take a look at our case studies
Harpoon 6.0 allows the creation of a brand new mesh type using hexas and polyhedra. This new meshing algorithm has taken 3 years to mature and has been designed to be more flexible and scalable than previous methods. Improved scalability will be available in future releases.
The previous meshing algorithms are still available to use.
To find out more about Harpoon's success stories, take a look at our case studies
Periscope 6.4 introduces a lossless movie creation technique.
Lossless movies produce an order of magnitude smaller databases with transient data.
In addition, the viewer has been updated to be more easy to use with steady state/transient data.
Find out more about Periscope
Harpoon 5.6g is an improved version based on 5.6. It also has been reconfigured to be ready for the upcoming major re-write v6.0.
Lossless movies produce an order of magnitude smaller databases with transient data.
In addtition, the viewer has been updated to be more easy to use with steady state/transient data
To find out more about Harpoon's success stories, take a look at our case studies
Periscope 6.3 has been reconfigured to produce even more scalable movie creation than before.
In addition, it is now possible to control the 3D model creation using variables.
Find out more about Periscope
Periscope 6.2 improves on the texture based movie creation seen in previous versions
Wind tunnel data is now possible to add and compare to cfd using the viewer
Find out more about Periscope
Harpoon 5.6 allows polyhedra to be created along with other standard cell types. The introduction of polys improves mesh quality and takes advantage of the latest solver technology.
In addition, the boundary layer has been improved to give better low Y-plus meshes on even the most complex examples.
To find out more about Harpoon's success stories, take a look at our case studies
Harpoon 5.0 (the OPENMP enabled version) allows millions of cells to be created in minutes without decomposing the model. To achieve this, the majority of Harpoon has been rewritten to take advantage of the latest multicore chips.
In addition, the single core performance has improved due to the rewrite and compiler changes.
To find out more about Harpoon's success stories, take a look at our case studies
Periscope harnesses core Harpoon algorithms along with state of the art imaging technology to provide an easy to use, extreme environment for all you visualisation needs.
Section clip movies can be generated at unparalleled speeds by adopting extreme Harpoon technology.
Proprietary video formats allow for full interactive interrogation of the whole flowfield.
The simplest of scripts allow for fully automated creation of scenes, plots, movies and data extraction in both batch and GUI
Find out more about Periscope
Submarine combines the powerful meshing capabilities of Harpoon with solvers such as OpenFOAM and Fluent, to produce an extremely simple environment for meshing, solving and visualising the most complex CFD problems.
Once the mesh has been generated, boundary conditions for the model, along with solver setup such as turbulence models and parallel settings, are achieved with extreme ease.
Solver choice is achieved at the press of a button.
The solution is interactively monitored by residuals, surface contour plots and clip planes allowing the user to "watch" the solution evolve. Iso-surfaces, streamlines and vortex cores are available once the solution has finished, all as fully interactive entities in an extreme visualisation environment.
Solvers currently supported include OpenFOAM and Fluent. Others are to be added as requested
Harpoon Elite (the MPI-enabled version) allows millions of cells to be created in minutes on the most complex of geometries. The use of MPI libraries means that meshing can be done on mulit-core machines or clusters.
To find out more about Harpoon's success stories, take a look at our case studies
The new competitive academic licensing options, which includes 20 floating licenses of Harpoon, will support University Lecturers in explaining CFD. Harpoon is so easy to use that students can jump straight into the physics of the problem without having to spend weeks learning a package. This combined with extreme speed means that researchers and lecturers can mesh complex geometries in real time.
Harpoon is already well established within the commercial sector and is currently in use at a large number of market leading companies in the automotive, industrial and aerospace sectors as well as university research groups.
“It is so refreshing to have a meshing tool that is so fast to use”, says Dr Neil Bressloff, Lecturer, MSc Course Co-ordinator, Computational Engineering Design, Southampton University.
The decision to move to the academic licensing option was down to demand among the students, researchers and lecturers. “Early experience of using Harpoon has been extremely encouraging, both in terms of mesh quality and speed of mesh generation”, explains Bressloff.
“We have been using Harpoon for both internal and external flow domains in biofluid and aerodynamic applications, and we are finding it invaluable in systematic design studies, in which it is necessary to generate high quality meshes, quickly and automatically”.
In an increasingly simulation focused world we are confident that this collaboration between Sharc and Southampton University will help to produce innovative engineers and scientists for the future.
The University of Southampton is a leading UK teaching and research institution with a global reputation for leading-edge research and scholarship. The University has around 20,000 students and nearly 5,000 staff.
To find out more about Harpoon's success stories, take a look at our case studies
The new competitive academic licensing options, which includes 20 floating licenses of Harpoon, will support University Lecturers in explaining CFD. Harpoon is so easy to use that students can jump straight into the physics of the problem without having to spend weeks learning a package. This combined with extreme speed means that researchers and lecturers can mesh complex geometries in real time.
Harpoon is already well established within the commercial sector and is currently in use at a large number of market leading companies in the automotive, industrial and aerospace sectors as well as university research groups.
“It is so refreshing to have a meshing tool that is so fast to use”, says Dr Neil Bressloff, Lecturer, MSc Course Co-ordinator, Computational Engineering Design, Southampton University.
The decision to move to the academic licensing option was down to demand among the students, researchers and lecturers. “Early experience of using Harpoon has been extremely encouraging, both in terms of mesh quality and speed of mesh generation”, explains Bressloff.
“We have been using Harpoon for both internal and external flow domains in biofluid and aerodynamic applications, and we are finding it invaluable in systematic design studies, in which it is necessary to generate high quality meshes, quickly and automatically”.
In an increasingly simulation focused world we are confident that this collaboration between Sharc and Southampton University will help to produce innovative engineers and scientists for the future.
The University of Southampton is a leading UK teaching and research institution with a global reputation for leading-edge research and scholarship. The University has around 20,000 students and nearly 5,000 staff.
To find out more about Harpoon's success stories, take a look at our case studies
Amongst the newest features are the much anticipated CAD loaders. It is now possible to import models directly from CATIA and Unigraphics CAD packages in their native format and from others via the IGES universal file format. Upon import Harpoon will tessellate the geometric entities according to a set of user controllable preferences. The imported geometry will retain the layer association defined in the CAD file and will even replicate colour schemes where possible
New features also include
Major improvements to the recently introduced optimisation algorithms allowing users to increase convergence with the most complicated geometries around.
The Boundary layer function has undergone significant development over the past 6 months resulting in more robust Boundary Layer creation with less incidence of going to zero and rapdi height fluctuation which could develop in previous versions.
Even more of Harpoon's commands are now available in Batch. This brings users of Harpoon a step closer to true black box meshing with complicated geometry.
Harpoon now supports hardware rendering allowing users to pipe graphics to different machines.
To find out more about Harpoon's success stories, take a look at our case studies
Months of work behind the scenes has resulted in new optimisation algorithms for CFD solvers which may have had convergence problems in the past. The enhanced routines are included in the default settings of Harpoon v2.5 which also includes an option for 'super converge' to help with any particularly difficult geometries
The optimisation is not necessary for all solvers or all cases. It is very much case and solver specific. The algorithms have been carefully developed to help solver technologies that struggle with convergence on complex geometry.
Other improvements include:
To find out more about Harpoon's success stories, take a look at our case studies
Volvo Cars and Ford of Europe have selected Sharc's advanced meshing solution, Harpoon, as a key element of their Underhood Thermal Management (UTM) simulation strategy. Following a detailed benchmarking programme carried out by Volvo in Sweden, Ford selected Harpoon over other meshing solutions for its speed, ease of use and ability to deal with complex geometry. This latest decision further strengthens Sharc's relationship with Ford, which already uses Harpoon in other areas of the business.
Harpoon will be used to generate complex meshes of complete vehicle models, including detailed engine compartment and underfloor regions, enabling Ford to create reliable simulations of the underhood thermal dynamics for its next-generation vehicle programmes. During an in-depth benchmarking process lasting almost two years, Harpoon was tested against all the major meshing solutions on the market, continually impressing Ford's design engineers with its ability to deliver fast meshes of even the most complex geometries. Harpoon also boasts a simple and logical graphical user interface, enhancing ease of use, improving workflow and reducing the need for training.
“Harpoon clearly adds value to our existing CAE processes,” says Anders Jönson, Senior CFD Engineer at the Volvo Car Corporation. “The software enables us to undertake more complex meshes in a much faster time, and has proved very easy to learn. Harpoon will certainly help us to reduce our overall product development times. It also enables us to support analysis in new areas where the complexity of the required meshing would have prevented our participation in the past.”
During the selection process, Sharc and Volvo worked closely together, sharing knowledge and solutions to help each company develop a better understanding of the technical challenges and opportunities that exist within the advanced CAE environment. “The relationship between our two companies was an important factor when choosing the right meshing partner,” explains Jönson. “Sharc offers a personal approach which makes it a very easy company to work with. Over the past two years the team has always been very helpful, demonstrating a willingness and ability to meet our technical and business needs and responding quickly when necessary.”
“We are delighted to have been chosen as Ford's meshing solution for UTM,” says Sharc's Technical Director, Richard Bardwell. “Our job is to provide technical solutions, and to do that properly you have to develop a good understanding of the environment the software will be working in, and the challenges and pressures each customer faces. By working closely with the team at Volvo, we have been able to refine and adapt our solution to meet their needs, delivering a software tool to address their simulation requirements now and into the future.”
Sharc Ltd announced today the release of new Matched Meshing software which has been included in the latest version of Harpoon.
Harpoon is extremely useful for meshing complex geometry quickly and with very little effort. One of its major strengths is that it does not require a watertight surface mesh so can cope with imperfect CAD geometry. If you have already invested the time to create a surface mesh now you can still enjoy all the benefits of a Harpoon volume mesh while retaining the initial surface mesh
This new function is called the Matched Mesh feature and is
managed by use of a Delaunay meshing algorithm to match the
triangular surface mesh with the Harpoon Hex dominant volume
mesh.
Matched Meshing is controlled on a per part basis giving you
the ability to generate meshes, with some parts of the mesh
conforming to the imported surface mesh and other parts
meshed in the traditional Harpoon manner or wrapped using
the Wrapping feature.
This is particularly useful where the geometry becomes dirty or control of the surface mesh distribution is not so important. Zero thickness parts (thin walls) can also be Matched and all other Harpoon features are compatible, such as the powerful boundary layer function, giving you complete control over the type of meshes that you wish to generate.
The Matching Mesh feature is another extension to Harpoon's ever growing feature set, providing flexibility in how you approach problems with meshing.
This new Matched Meshing technology is available free of charge to existing Harpoon users.
Trial versions are also available for interested parties through www.sharc.co.uk.
To get a copy of the world's fastest meshing software, Harpoon V2.4, contact your local Harpoon distributor.
Sharc Ltd announced today the release of new wrapping technology which has been included in the latest version of Harpoon.
Harpoon meshes dirty CAD geometry with ease, however, there are occasions when a Wrapper combined with the power of Harpoon would make meshing even easier. In particular, large holes in the CAD can cause problems when creating a mesh. The Harpoon Wrapper alleviates these problems and just like Harpoon, is extremely quick
Underhood Thermal Management is an application where these problems are evident as the geometry is extremely complex, containing many holes, intersecting and overlapping surfaces and in some cases, actual physical parts may be missing.
Harpoon's new Wrapper feature envelopes the geometry in a single closed surface which can then be used as a base to generate the final surface and volume mesh. This function has advantages such as ensuring a watertight 'hole free' surface mesh, removing intersecting/overlapping surfaces and allowing automatic de-featuring of complex parts not required for the analysis.
This new addition to Harpoon's ever growing feature set builds the philosophy of fast, automatic meshing by allowing integration of the wrapping feature along with full grid generation into a scripted process which can provide massive time savings for optimization studies.
More comprehensive information can be found through the Sharc website
This new wrapper technology is available free of charge to existing Harpoon users. Trial versions are also available for interested parties through www.sharc.co.uk
To get a copy of the world's fastest meshing software, Harpoon V2.2, contact your local Harpoon distributor.
If you would like to discuss this or any other feature of Harpoon come to our Simulation Conference (SCUK'06) which will be held on the 17th October in Swindon
Sharc announced today that its Extreme Meshing software, Harpoon, now supports Windows 64 operating system.
Harpoon users typically create larger meshes and so the 2 GB RAM limitations of 32 bit Windows resulted in the need for multiple operating systems, one for smaller meshes and day to day use and another large memory machine for the bigger jobs.
To facilitate the installation on Windows machines Harpoon now includes a Windows installer for both the 32 and 64 bit platforms replacing the manual process and the need to create environment variables.
“With more and more companies moving to 64 bit Windows systems we felt the time was right to offer this functionality” Richard Bardwell CEO Sharc Ltd
The Windows 64 bit version of Harpoon is available free of charge to existing users. Trial versions are also available for interested parties through www.sharc.co.uk
Following Sharc's interest in Windows and through its links with the University of Southampton (an Official Windows 2003 server beta tester) and the Smallpeice Trust, Harpoon and EnSight were used in the Computers in Engineering day which took place at Southampton University on the 10th - 13th of July 2006. This enabled students to build a Windows computer from scratch, mesh the geometry of a plane using Harpoon, solve the laminar flow using Fluent on Windows 2003 server and then visualise the results with CEI's EnSight software.
The day was an unqualified success and students were able to see how accessible these leading edge technologies had become. More detailed information will be available in the coming weeks through the Microsoft Institute for High Performance Computing homepage
“Thanks to Sharc and CEI for their support during this event” Dr. Kenji Takeda Lecturer in Aeronautics University of Southampton
Summary of New Features
To find out more about Harpoon's success stories, take a look at our case studies
New software generates mesh in three mouse clicks;
processes two million cells per minute on standard hardware
Sharc Ltd, a world leader in meshing technologies, today announced the release of version 2.0 of its flagship meshing software, Harpoon -'The Extreme Mesher'. Key enhancements to the code include a new boundary layer meshing algorithm broadening its range of applications in all industries. Harpoon V2.0 has been beta-tested extensively by users and subjected to real-world industrial geometries. Beta users have reported impressive meshing improvements in Harpoon V2.0 compared to its already notable predecessor, Harpoon V1.4.9.
“Extreme Just Got Better ! ” says Richard Bardwell, CEO Sharc, echoing the feedback he has been receiving from beta-testers all over the world. “Harpoon Version 2 builds on its unrivaled meshing speed and ability to cope with complex geometry, adding a number of significant enhancements”.
These primary enhancements for Harpoon Version 2 are:
Accuracy of results due to improved,
unrestricted boundary layer algorithm
Ease of Use through more intuitive GUI
Speed due to optimized surface mesh clean
up
Mesh Quality through improved surface
recovery
Harpoon gives a wide range of engineering companies the competitive edge when it comes to development time.
“I've had a great time-boost using Fluent once I started using Harpoon” Charles J. Kurle, Donaldson
A wide range of industrial sectors use simulation technology to speed up development time. Previously, transforming the CAD model into a workable 3D mesh took days or even weeks. The process of optimisation requires numerous changes to the model which magnifies this pre-processing step and can have a devastating effect on time to market. Harpoon's speed provides extra time when it is needed the most.
“Harpoon's mesh generation speed allowed us to deal with these iterations with minimal time delay.” Darren Woolf, Arup
One of Harpoon's main strengths is its ability to handle the massive changes in scale exhibited by large models. Features such as boundary layer creation and cell stretching allow the user to reduce the number of cells in a mesh while retaining the necessary precision.
Model surfaces need not be watertight as Harpoon tolerates gaps and overlaps of surface data that would require manual clean-up in most other mesh generators.
“The meshing speed is jaw dropping, especially with the high quality meshes it achieves”. Fernando Cacho, GEMM
Mesh checking hole and leak detection contribute to Harpoon being the quickest and easiest to use mesh generation package on the market.
“The developers were great and very helpful” says Alexej Goehring, Arup
To get a copy of the world's fastest meshing software, Harpoon V2.0, contact your local Harpoon distributor.
New in Harpoon V2 are:
To find out more about Harpoon's success stories, take a look at our case studies
Recent releases of Harpoon have included some important improvements to the code's handling of feature lines, which are referred to as “FLs” in the following article.
Feature lines are used in Harpoon to capture and retain the important geometric features of a model. These include areas of high curvature and the boundaries (free edges) of model parts. Harpoon will always attempt to retain these features during meshing. Target mesh sizes can be defined on different Fls, or mesh sizes can be specified on the polygons.
Harpoon defines two types of FLs:
For models that consist of more than one part, a separate FL part is created for each model part. FLs may be merged, renamed, deleted or separated using the same methods as for polygons -- namely “by Region” or “by Feature”. A region is defined as all line segments connected to one that the user selects. This is done by double-clicking on a line segment with the left mouse button (the number of the segment will appear in the background window).
Applying the option “Surface > Separate > Line Segment by Region” on the selected segment results in the original line part being split into two parts -- one for all line segments connected to the segment selected, and the other being all segments not connected to it. Alternatively, applying the option “Surface > Separate > Line Segment by Feature” on the FL results in multiple new line parts according to the “Separation Angle” in Harpoon's preferences.
It is important to distinguish between the two angle preferences. “Separation Angle” is used to separate polygons and line segments based on the included angles between adjacent polygons or line segments. “Feature Angle” is used to create FL parts as described above.
By default, Harpoon creates an FL part for each model part to which it is associated. If a single FL part is desired, the command line option “-nolineperpart” can be used when starting Harpoon.
FLs on the free edges of model parts may, or may not, be desired. It is possible to suppress the creation of FLs on the free edges of a model part by starting Harpoon with the command line option “-noedgeline”. This option will also invoke the “-nolineperpart” option. FLs will only be created on part edges if the angles relative to the adjacent model part exceeds the extraction angle in the preferences.
FLs serve one other important use in Harpoon. If FLs describe closed circuits, for example around an opening in a model, they can be used to close the holes. This is especially useful when Harpoon's hole finding feature - which in reality looks only for “free edges” (sides of polygons shared by only one polygon) - results in no holes being found, although they appear in the model. These are typically not free edges, but openings in thick-walled parts. Since the edges of these openings are usually sharp, they will appear as FLs. Separating those describing an opening using the “Surface > Separate > Line Segment by Region” procedure described above results in a single line part. The user then selects this line and closes the hole using the normal hole-closing feature.
The information above may be found in Harpoon's User Guide, viewed through Harpoon's “Help” facility.
Sharc has added support for the Macintosh OS X platform to Harpoon, the extreme meshing program that the company launched in March 2003.
Harpoon turns a CAD file into a finished mesh with three clicks of a mouse. Proprietary meshing algorithms enable the software to process up to two million cells per minute on standard hardware. A hex-dominant structure within Harpoon ensures better quality cells, even if CAD data is poor. And Harpoon automatically checks the generated mesh for inconsistencies and repairs any sub-par cells.
Sharc officially supports the Panther (10.3) version of Mac OS X, which includes support from Apple for X11 graphics. The company recommends that Jaguar (10.2) users upgrade to Panther for its software enhancements and improved X11 support. Harpoon is currently an X11-based application.
Because Sharc's licensing model is platform-independent, Mac users within existing CEI customer sites can simply install Harpoon and contact the network administrator to obtain the licence key to use the software.
“The Macintosh platform is often overlooked by developers of advanced engineering software,” says Richard Bardwell, CEO of Sharc Software. “But sophisticated CAE applications have been developed independently all over the world and some of these exist only on a Mac. As CAE software tends to depend upon accurate meshes, it makes perfect sense for us to make our mesher available on as many platforms as possible.”
New software generates mesh in three mouse clicks;
processes two million cells per minute on standard hardware
Sharc has released Harpoon, new software that simplifies and speeds the process of generating high-quality meshes from standard CAD packages.
Harpoon turns a CAD file into a finished mesh with three clicks of a mouse. Proprietary meshing algorithms enable the software to process up to two million cells per minute on standard hardware. A Hex-dominant structure within Harpoon ensures better quality cells, even if CAD data is poor. And Harpoon automatically checks the generated mesh for inconsistencies and repairs any sub-par cells.
Surface geometry is brought into Harpoon through STL (surface triangulation) files that can be created in any CAD package. Model surfaces need not be watertight for processing; Harpoon tolerates gaps and overlaps of surface data that would require manual clean-up in most mesh generators.
Users can specify a level of detail resolution without having to modify the original surface definition, and multiple model files can be imported to permit model assembly from different data sources. Harpoon uses tetrahedral, prism and pyramid cells to ensure high mesh fidelity near model surfaces. Purely tetrahedral cells can also be generated. Finished meshes can be exported to all major CFD and FEA programs.
Harpoon can be used to create surface-only meshes for boundary-element-based solvers such as panel methods. These meshes can be generated in only a few seconds for even the most complex geometry. An option is also provided to quickly generate a purely cartesian mesh for those not requiring boundary-fitted grids.
“We call this an extreme mesher, because it provides quality, simplicity, speed, flexibility and reliability that are unprecedented,” says Richard Bardwell, Sharc's CEO. “We think Harpoon will revolutionise computational simulation by breaking up the current bottleneck of pre-processing.”