Open CASCADE Technology 6.8.0 is available for download!

Open CASCADE Technology 6.8.0 is available for download!

November 10, 2014

Open CASCADE Technology and Products version 6.8.0 is a minor release, which includes nearly 600 improvements and bug fixes over the previous release 6.7.1.

Version 6.8.0 is binary incompatible with the previous versions of Open CASCADE Technology and Products, so applications linked against a previous version must be recompiled to run with this Version 6.8.0.

New in this version:

Foundation Classes:

• Using NULL as invalid pointer in Handle classes, instead of custom constant (0xfefd0000...);
• STL-compatible iterators for classes in NCollection package;
• Code clean-up: removing the usage of config.h, support of pre-standard STL streams, unused CDL template (“generic”) classes and instantiations, etc.;

Modeling:

• Data structures for Bounded Volume Hierarchy (BVH) algorithms;
• Two new algorithms of global optimization in math used for Extrema;
• Parallelization of Boolean Operations algorithm;
• Interface to break execution of Boolean Operations algorithm;
• Possibility to protect a shape against modification of geometry;
• Refactoring and optimization of BRepMesh algorithm;
• New option in 2d offset algorithm allowing to keep sharp corners and build one-side offset on an open wire;

Visualization:

• New component, VIS, providing interactive services (similar to AIS) for OCCT shapes in VTK viewer;
• New approach for manipulations with views using a camera paradigm;
• Support of stereoscopic display (requires a graphic card supporting OpenGL Quad Buffer);
• Improved support of perspective views;
• Ray tracing now uses shaders (GLSL) instead of OpenCL;
• Possibility to combine objects drawn by OpenGL and ray tracing in one view;
• Frustum culling for fast display of a large number of objects with high zoom;
• Initial support for OpenGL ES 2.0 for mobile platforms;
• New classes for display of colored shapes and point clouds in AIS;
• Revised and completed implementation of connected interactive objects;
• Improved handling of temporary objects in the viewer (immediate mode);

Data Exchange:

• Support of COMPSOLIDs in STEP export;
• Support of UNICODE (UTF-8) filenames;
• Support of names and attributes assigned to points (vertices) in XCAF;

DRAW:

• FPE signal handlers are disabled by default;
• New sample scripts demonstrating modeling and visualization capabilities in DRAW;
• Improved usability of top level menu (help browser, samples, User's Guide);

Documentation:

• New User's Guide describing Boolean Operations algorithms;
• Improvement of extraction of class documentation for Reference Manual;

Samples:

• New sample for using drawing OCCT 3D viewer into Direct3D surface in WPF applications;

Build system:

• Support of building on Android (except for DRAW);

Products:

• New (experimental) mode in Express Mesh, allowing generation of all-quad meshes;
• Universal interface to export mesh produced by Express Mesh;
• Improved triangulation near face boundaries in Express Mesh (Delaunay meshing);
• Update of training materials and samples;
• Translation of HATCH entities from DXF;
• Boolean operations on meshes in OMF provide history on elements and handle complex cases;
• Visualization of meshes in OMF takes into account the direction of normal vectors to surface;
• New wrapper for OCCT classes for Java language;

Detailed information about this release is available in Release Notes (PDF).

To download Open CASCADE Technology, please, visit our Download Center.

To learn more about our Products, please, visit our Components page.

Please, contact us for any additional information.