INTRODUCTION |
When GiD is to be used for a particular type of analysis, it is necessary to predefine all the information required from the user and to define the way the final information is given to the solver module. To do so, some files are used to describe conditions, materials, general data, units systems, symbols and the format of the input file for the solver. We give the name Problem Type to this collection of files used to configure GiD for a particular type of analysis.
Note: You can also learn how to configure GiD for a particular type of analysis by following the Problem Type Tutorial ; this tutorial is included with the GiD package you have bought. You can also download it from the GiD support web page (http://www.gidhome.com/support).
GiD has been designed to be a general-purpose Pre- and Postprocessor; consequently, the configurations for different analyses must be performed according to the particular specifications of each solver. It is therefore necessary to create specific data input files for every solver. However, GiD lets you perform this configuration process inside the program itself, without any change in the solver, and without having to program any independent utility.
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To configure these files means defining the data that must be input by the user, as well as the materials to be implemented and other geometrical and time-dependent conditions. It is also possible to add symbols or drawings to represent the defined conditions. GiD offers the opportunity to work with units when defining the properties of the data mentioned above, but there must be a configuration file where the definition of the units systems can be found. It is also necessary to define the way in which this data is to be written inside the file that will be the input file read by the corresponding solver.
The creation of a Problem Type involves the creation of a directory with the name of the problem type and the extension .gid. This directory can be located in the current working directory or the main GiD executable directory. The former can be useful during the development of the project. Once it is finished, it may be advisable to move the directory to the one where GiD is stored; in this way, your problem type will be added to those included in the system and it will appear in the GiD menu (see Problem type from Reference Manual). In both cases, the series of files must be inside the problem type directory. The name for most of them will follow the format problem_type_name.xxx where the extension refers to their particular function. Considering problem_type_name to be the name of the problem type and project_name the name of the project, file configuration is described by the following diagram:
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Configuration files
The files problem_type_name.sim, ***.geo and ***.bas are not mandatory and can be added to facilitate visualization (both kinds of file) or to prepare the data input for restart in additional files (just ***.bas files). In the same way problem_type_name.xml is not necessary; it can be used to customize features such as: version info, icon identification, password validation, etc.