Meshing API Released to Public

By DE Editors

The public release of the UGC API V2 software and documentation for anAPI (application programming interface) for unstructured meshingsoftware has been announced by Pointwise (Fort Worth, TX). APointwise-led team that also included Boeing, Lockheed Martin, andBasis Software recently completed the development of UGC API V2 for theU.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), according to a statementreleased with the announcement.

The purpose of the API is to specify how meshing technologies are to beimplemented in software. If both the meshing algorithms and existingapplication conform to the API specification, the integration of thetwo can be accomplished easily. In practical terms, the UGC API V2 APIaddresses the difficulties encountered when trying to integrate newtechnology into an application that result from the fact that the twoare written by different authors. Hence, both the application and thealgorithms use different function names, argument lists, return values,data structures, and so on. Rather than reengineer either theapplication or the technology, a common API could be used by both theapplication developers and technology researchers, resulting inseamless integration. Conceivably, the API could allow new meshingtechnology to be integrated in a plug-and-play fashion.

The API supports mesh generation for 1D, 2D, and 3D linear andquadratic elements that are triangular, quadrilateral, tetrahedral,pyramidal, prismatic, and hexahedral. The API specifies C as thestandard programming language. Other programming languages such asFortran77 and Fortran90 are supported via wrappers; example wrappersare provided with the API. The API consists of a collection ofpre-defined interface definitions and specifications on how softwaretools are to interact using the API. The API is designed to permitmultiple meshing libraries to be linked into a single application.

The API’s namesake, the Unstructured Grid Consortium (UGC), was formedin 1999 by AFRL and Boeing as a forum for facilitating the exchange ofunstructured grid technology and has grown to include eleven memberorganizations from government, industry, and academia. In 2004 the UGCbecame a working group of the Meshing, Visualization, and ComputationalEnvironments Technical Committee of the American Institute ofAeronautics and Astronautics. For more information about the UGC anddownload instructions for the API, click here.