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Ruggero edited this page Mar 31, 2020 · 2 revisions

BlenderFDS version number follows the MAJOR.MINOR.MAINTENANCE increments:

  • MAJOR version changes when the file format becomes incompatible and API changes,
  • MINOR version when new functionality is added in a backwards-compatible manner,
  • MAINTENANCE version changes on backwards-compatible bug fixes.

It is recommended that you continually update maintenance releases, but update the minor release only with the start of new projects because some results might change.

2020-01-01: BlenderFDS 5.0.0

2018-09-23: BlenderFDS 4.3.0

A new minor release is out. Even if minor, this release is packed with new features, developed during my six months visit at NIST as a guest researcher. A great thank you to all the friends there, it was an amazing stay both from a professional and personal point of view! And a lot of work is now laying ahead.

This release was badly delayed by the Morandi bridge collapse in Genoa, Italy. The collapse caused 43 casualties, around 630 people evacuated from their homes, the disruption of the economic and transportation systems of the city. We are still very busy working on the recovery.

Now back to BlenderFDS.

New features for users:
  • New FDS Case config panel for each Blender Scene.
  • Vastly improved support for GEOM namelist:
    • New triangulation algorithm, now much more stable.
    • New full fledged automatic geometry quality checks for all defects:
      • non manifold edges and vertices,
      • non contiguous or inverted normals,
      • open geometry,
      • degenerate or duplicate faces and edges,
      • loose geometry,
      • self-intersecting geometry.
    • Added Get intersection with operator to check for intersections between selected objects.
    • When a geometry quality error condition is detected, the offending vertices, faces, edges are now selected, to assist the user debugging the geometry.
    • Setup of geometry epsilon for edge length and face area is now possible on a per-case basis, in the new Case config panel.
    • Added the possibility to exclude the geometry quality checks from specific objects.
    • Show geometry operator now shows the exported geometry for GEOMs as well.
  • Added support for RADI and CATF namelists.
  • Improved support for Blender units (eg. imperial units), some issues still ongoing.
  • Renewed voxelization and pixelization algorithms for OBSTs and VENTs, on average 3x speed up.
  • Voxels and pixels can now be centered to the object bounding box, this allows the creation of truly symmetrical voxelized spheres.
  • Added CELL_CENTERED parameter to SLCF namelist.
  • While waiting for a proper configurability of the number of exported float digits of geometric coordinates, 6 decimal digits are now exported.
  • New FDS default values treatment: default values are not exported to the FDS case. The default value is shown in the help message when hovering over the property field.
New features for developers:
  • Improved Python code structure towards the large transformations towards Blender 2.8 support
  • Code clean-up for Python PEP8

2018-06-12: BlenderFDS 4.2.2

A new maintenance release is out.

New features for users:
  • Bug fixing: UI, FDS file formatting.

2018-05-18: BlenderFDS 4.2.1

A new maintenance release is out.

New features for users:
  • Bug fixing. Some Blender 2.79 packages have an older Python interpreter embedded, this was breaking BlenderFDS. Fixed!
  • Pushing forward some minor simplified UI enhancements.

2018-05-14: BlenderFDS 4.2.0

A new minor release is out.

New features for users:
  • Improvement of the voxelization algorithm, better continuity between close objects
  • Experimental support for importing and exporting the future GEOM namelist
  • New search tool for MATL_ID names
  • Added MPI_PROCESS parameter to MESH namelist
  • Exported FDS files have now a more compact format, as suggested by FDS developers
  • Some bugfix and slight refactor

2016-11-24: BlenderFDS 4.1.1

A new maintenance release is out.

While working on a new project I discovered that voxelization failed in some not infrequent cases. It is now fixed.

2016-09-21: BlenderFDS 4.1.0

A new minor release is out.

New features for users
  • The calculated FDS geometry is now cached inside Blender Objects. Exporting of unmodified objects to FDS is now lightning fast!
  • Improved management of displayed FDS geometries
  • Some bugfix and slight refactor

2016-04-06: BlenderFDS 4.0.6

A new maintenance release is out.

The paths to predefined files were incorrectly determined in corner cases. The bug is now fixed.

2016-03-15: BlenderFDS 4.0.5

A new maintenance release is out.

Bojan Csoti spotted a little bug with oversized objects, thank you! The bug is now fixed.

2016-03-04: BlenderFDS 4.0.4

A new maintenance release is out.

Again bug fixing:

  • Fixed link to wiki in Blender menu;
  • Temporary object should never be exported, fixed!

and a little new nifty feature:

  • new tool for selecting DEVC QUANTITY.

2016-02-11: BlenderFDS 4.0.3

A new maintenance release is out.

While developing automated testing procedure, I am finding and fixing many bugs:

  • Importing function was creating fake XB parameters in several objects. Solved!
  • Wrong naming of input/output operators, fixed!
    • bpy.ops.export.fds_case() -> bpy.ops.export_scene.fds_case()
    • bpy.ops.import.fds_case() -> bpy.ops.import_scene.fds_case() or fds_snippet()

2016-02-11: BlenderFDS 4.0.2

A new maintenance release is out:

  • Added SP_DUMP_STATUS_FILES to DUMP namelist for automatic monitoring of case file running.
  • New automated testing procedure before releasing (see /dev/autotest): all example cases are exported and run.
  • Small bug fixing.

2016-02-04: BlenderFDS 4.0.1

A new maintenance release is out. No new features, just bug fixing:

  • Improved defaults and feedback to users for Operators.
  • Facilitated addition of a new SURF related to a specific Blender Object (eg. OBST)
  • Bug fixing.

I ❤️ GitHub.

2016-01-25: BlenderFDS 4.0.0

A new major BlenderFDS release is out:

  • Exporting target is FDS version 6 (File > Export > FDS case).
  • This BlenderFDS version shall be installed as an addon of Blender 2.76b. It does not work with older versions and it is not guaranteed to work with newer ones.
  • The new file format is not backward compatible.

This is the first version after the huge migration to GitHub. This release was delayed by at least one year, because I was very taken by the working-groups on the new Italian Fire Code.

Thank you!

First of all, I would like to sincerely thank all the contributors that financially supported BlenderFDS development during the last crowdfunding campaign.

A particular thank goes to our sponsors:

  • Sergei Maximov;
  • backbone;
  • Kristopher Overholt;
  • Combustion Science & Engineering, Inc. (Stephen Olenick).

This version of BlenderFDS is the result of a huge effort: the codebase was complitely reviewed and restructured to make place for new features and guarantee future maintainability. The source code is now fully object oriented, fully commented, and much more readable.

New features for users
  • Simplified user interface.
  • BlenderFDS can import existing FDS case files to BlenderFDS scenes (File > Import > FDS case).
  • Creation of GE1 cad description file (Scene Panel > DUMP Panel), that allows realistic visualization in Smokeview.
  • New geometric description PIXELS for flat faces (Object Panel > OBST Panel > XB, for namelists that support faces). Faces of any shape, normal to any axis, can be exported to FDS (eg. round VENTs!).
  • Namelist grouping and sorting by Blender empties (Add Blender Menu > Empty). Parent your namelists under a Blender Empty, and discover them properly sorted and grouped in the FDS case file.
  • New tool for FDS MESH creation (Object Panel > MESH Panel > IJK): set cell sizes and align them to the global reference system, for easier mutual alignment of MESHes.
  • New tool for calculating FDS SURF HRRPUA and TAU_Q according to EU and US standards (Material Panel > SURF Panel > TAU_Q).
  • Improved user interface and tools:
    • geometry and code visualization buttons are now readily available in the user interface;
    • easier parameters copying between selected namelists.
  • Faster and more precise voxelization algorithm.
  • Free FDS text file is now fully integrated into Blender interface.
  • Show geometry button visualizes the geometry as it is going to be exported to FDS. This allows the user to check it visually.
  • Multiple geometries can now have a suffix added to their IDs (Object Panel > Any namelist panel > ID), eg. add z coordinate to thermocouples ID values: tc+1.20, tc+1.30, tc+1.40, ...
  • Set default appearance and allowed geometry parameters on namelist change.
  • File versioning, check and manage future transitions to new BlenderFDS file formats.
  • Custom snippets path preference in Blender User Preferences > Add-Ons panel.
New features for developers
  • New programming API: context.scene.to_fds(), context.object.to_fds(), context.material.to_fds(), context.scene.from_fds(). Build or modify your geometry using Python programming language!
  • New debug mode and timing.
  • Detailed description of FDS language in lang.py.

BlenderFDS Wiki Home

BlenderFDS Wiki Home
Getting Started

✅ Release notes

✅ Installing and Updating

✅ Learning FDS and Blender

✅ The idea behind BlenderFDS

✅ User interface

✅ Exporting geometries

🔥 Experimenting with GEOMs

FDS Syntax Highlighting

✅ Gedit editor

✅ Notepad++ editor

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