USER INTERFACE |
The user interface allows you to interact with the program. It is composed of buttons, windows, icons, menus, text entries and the graphical output of certain information. You can configure the interface to display things in a certain way, and may use as many menus and windows as required.
The initial layout of GiD is consists of a large graphical area with pull-down menus at the top, a command line at the bottom, a message window above it and an icon bar. The project that is being run is displayed in the window title bar. The pull-down and 'click on' menus are used to access GiD commands quickly. Some of them offer a shortcut for easier access - these are activated by holding the Ctrl key and pressing the appropriate letter key(s).
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Right-clicking the mouse while the cursor is over the graphical area opens an on-screen menu with some visualization options. To select one of them, right- or left-click on the option; to quit, left-click anywhere outside the menu.
The first option in this menu is called Contextual . It will give different options depending on the function currently being used.
The pair of icon bars contain some facilities that also appear in the graphical area of the window or in the menu bar. When left-clicking on the icon, the corresponding command is performed or an icon menu with several options will be shown. When right-clicking (or using the center button if there is one), a menu with the options help and configure toolbars will appear allowing you to get a description of the icon or to configure the position of the toolbars. The description also appears when the cursor remains over the icon for a couple of seconds.
To configure the position and view of the toolbars, the Toolbars position window can be called from Utilities -> Tools -> Toolbars, or by right-clicking over a toolbar.
Using the Toolbars position window it is possible to enable the Right buttons menu. Only advanced users should use these buttons.
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The Standard bar has common options for both pre- and postprocessing components, including: open, take a snapshot, print, preferences, help, exit and others.
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The different icons represent, from left to right:
The Geometry & view bar has some of the view options common to pre- and postprocessing, such as zooming, panning, rotating, etc. But certain icons are specific to preprocessing and others to postprocessing.
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The different icons represent, from left to right:
Note: The position of the icons depends on how the window is positioned.
If you left-click on Delete, GiD opens another window with the different entities to be deleted: Point, Line, Surface, Volume or All types.
If you left-click on List entities, GiD opens another window with the different entities able to be listed: Points, Lines, Surfaces or Volumes.
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On the postprocess toolbar, the first six commands are the same as on the preprocess toolbar, i.e. from Zoom in to Pan.
The remaining icons represent, from left to right:
Notes:
If windows are used to enter the data, it is generally necessary to accept this data before closing the window. If this is not done, the data will not be changed.
Usually, commands and operations are invoked by using the menus or mouse, but all the information can be typed into the command line.
When an option is selected and a secondary window is opened, it generally appears over the main window and cannot be hidden by it. This behaviour can be changed by deselecting the Always on top flag in the Window system menu (right-click on the window title bar to do this).
The Macros bar allows the creation and execution of macros defined by the user or predefined by GiD:
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The View results bar allow the user a quick view of the results:
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it's fully explained at View Results Bar