Preferences

Menu: Utilities->Preferences...

Toolbar:

Preferences

Note: There are many settings in GiD that have a predefined value, but that can be modified by the user. They can be accessed in one of two ways. Firstly, by opening the Preferences window from the Utilities pull-down menu, and secondly via the Variables command in the Utilities section of the Right buttons menu (the latter is also available in the Contextual mouse menu). Almost all the preferences variables are present in the Preferences window, but some advanced ones are only available in Variables command.

In the following section the different options available in the Preferences window are shown and their different settings explained.

Usually variables are graphically set trough the preferences window, but some unusual variables must be set from the lower command line, with this command:

Mescape Utilities Variables <varname> <varvalue>

if <varname> is not specified then the mouse contextual menu (see Mouse operations ) will show the list of available variables.

General

The first group of Preferences are general options, and are used to set the different ways of working with GiD.

General preferences

Variable: CreateAlwaysNewPoint. Respective values: 1,0,-2. Default is 0 (Ask).

Graphical

The second group of preferences are graphical options, and are used to set different ways of visualizing the model. They do not change the geometry or the model information.

Graphical preferences

Variable: DrawSurfaceMode. Default is 1 (Boundary lines).

If this option is set various further options are available, though these only apply when rotating.

Meshing

The third group of preferences are meshing options.

Meshing preferences

If any entity has Skip or NoSkip Mesh Criteria (see Mesh criteria ), the surfaces involved are meshed with the Rjump mesher, even if another mesher is set in this window. These mesh generators are based on the advancing front generation mesh technique in order to improve speed and portability. Variable: SurfaceMesher. Values: 0 (Rfast), 1 (Rsurf) and 4 (Rjump). Default is 0 (Rfast).Note: GiD can try another mesher internally when one of them fails to generate the mesh for one surface.

Example of size transition if 'Regular transition near boundary' is set.

Example of size transition if 'Regular transition near boundary' is not set.

Variable: BoundaryLayer(GrowLaw). Values: 0 (Function 1), 1 (Function 2) and 2 (Function 3). Default is 0 (Function 1).

The red line below these options shows schematically the difference of heigt of the different layers of boundary layer mesh.

Variable: HighQualitySmoothing. Values: 0 (Normal), 1 (HighAngle) and 2 (HighGeom). Default is 1 (HighAngle).

Trick: The unstructured volume mesher use an 'advancing front' method, but it's possible to use a 'Delaunay' based (unrecommended)

To select the Delaunay one set the variable GiD_Set VolumeMesher to 1 (0 to restore the default mesher) (see Preferences )

Exchange

The fourth group of preferences are geometry exchange (import and export) options.

Exchange preferences

Import options:

Variable: AutoCollapseAfterImport. Default is active (1).

Variable: ImportTolerance. Default is 0.001.

Variable: CollapseIgnoringLayers. Value: 0 (Each layer separately), 1 (Ignoring Layers). Default is 1 (Ignoring Layers).

Variable: IGESCurveOnSurfaceFrom3D. Value: 0 (space parameter definition), 1 (3D space definition). Default is 1 (3D space definition).

Variable: IGESCreateAllInLayerToUse. Value: 0 (IGES entities created in the file layers), 1 (IGES entities created in the current layer to use).

Export options:

Some CADs are not able to read the IGES B-Rep style and then can be interesting to use the alternative style.

Variable: IGESSolidsManifoldBRep. Value: 0 (no B-Rep output style), 1 (B-Rep output stype). Default is 1 (B-Rep output style).

Fonts

The fifth group of preferences deals with the fonts used inside GiD.

Font preferences

Format

The sixth group of preferences deals with numerical formats used inside GiD.

Format preferences

Grid

The seventh group of preferences contains grid options (see Grid ).

Grid preferences

Variable: Grid(DrawLabels). Value: 0,1. Default is 0 (no show labels)