nTop vs Plato
nTop
ntop.comPlato
sandia.govSide by side
| Figure | nTop | Plato |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 2 |
| Spec score · Generative Design Software | 7.9 (#8) | 7.0 (#15) |
| Headquarters | New York City, United States | Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA |
| Purpose | nTop is an engineering design platform for generating parametric geometry and exploring many design variants. | Plato is a platform for topology optimization that helps designers generate designs optimized to meet functional requirements. |
| Support | nTop Support offers guides, troubleshooting, a knowledge base, and support requests, including a request path for ITAR support. | The Plato Engine GitHub page invites users to submit questions, bug reports, and feature requests as GitHub issues and lists [email protected] for user support. |
Plans
In their own words
nTop
nTop is an engineering design platform for generating parametric geometry and exploring design variants. Its implicit modeling represents geometry mathematically, helping models remain stable through substantial parameter changes. Design logic can run across thousands of variants on desktop or distributed cloud compute, while GPU compute and machine learning are described as ways to shorten simulation feedback cycles. The platform supports assembly and surface modeling and imports CAD, mesh, CAE, and other formats, including STEP, Parasolid, CATIA V5, Creo, SolidWorks, STL, OBJ, Abaqus, and ANSYS; listed exports include STEP, Parasolid, STL, and 3MF. The interactive desktop application supports 64-bit Windows 11 Enterprise, Professional, and Education editions; nTop Automate also supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.9. The system requirements specify at least 64 GB RAM and an NVIDIA GPU with Volta architecture or newer and 8 GB VRAM. Commercial pricing is on request. Students, educators, and academic researchers can apply for a free non-commercial education version.
Plato
Plato is a Linux command-line platform for topology optimization, helping designers develop geometry that meets functional requirements. It solves topology and shape design problems with adjoint methods for gradient-based optimization. Documented objectives include increasing stiffness or heat flow and reducing stress. Plato coordinates workflows involving geometry, meshing, and physics simulation packages. It includes the open-source physics code Plato Analyze and can also be used with a growing set of internal Sandia physics codes. Research features described for the platform include structural optimization across multiple materials, uncertainty-aware structural optimization, level-set methods, and a massively parallel kernel filter. A graphical interface is in development for selected applications. The open-source version is listed at free, with a limited set of objectives and constraints. A license is required to obtain an installation package.