Tools

Menu: Utilities->Tools

In this menu there are some options to change the appearance of windows and some tools related to different aspects of GiD.

Toolbars

Menu: Utilities->Tools->Toolbars...

In this menu you can customize GiD toolbars. They can be displayed inside another window, can appear independently in their own dialog box, or can be hidden.

When you select this option, the following window appears:

Toolbar position window

Within this window you can choose where on the screen the toolbar is to be displayed - inside, outside, top left, bottom right, etc. - or you can switch it off. The GiD toolbars are:

Note: To make the Up menu appear again, the shortcuts Control-U or Control-Shift-u can be used.

Save window configuration

Menu: Utilities->Tools->Save window configuration...

It is possible to save a window configuration to a file. Then, if GiD is opened again with the -c option (see INVOKING GiD ) and the file in question, the windows are opened in the same place and are the same size as before.

Move screen objects

Menu: Utilities->Tools->Move screen objects

This option lets you move screen objects (objects that do not belong to the model) such as axes, comments, legends, etc.

Coordinates window

Menu: Utilities->Tools->Coordinates window...

Entering coordinates window

This option opens a window used to enter points (see Point definition ). It can be used in any place where it is possible to enter a point.

To accept one point in this window, click Apply or press the Return key.

The Coordinate system option lets you select between:

The Local axes option lets you choose:

Create new point shows the current way of entering points. The Change button opens the preferences window (see Preferences -> General) where it can be changed.

The Pick button allows you to select a point from the window which is then inserted in the point fields. From here it can be edited and used.

Read batch window

Menu: Utilities->Tools->Read batch window

A batch file can be read to execute some functions (see Batch file ) or to create an animated view of these operations. This latter case can be performed with the Read batch window.

Read batch window

Once a file is selected, it is possible to ***pause it at certain points to highlight interesting parts*** , execute it interactively, and make it stop at interesting points. To allow all the movements (rotations and so on) be executed in the same way as originally, the Write rotations in batch: option must be flagged in the preferences window (see Preferences -> General) when creating the batch.

There are several ways to halt the batch while it is running. One of them is to include stops in the show file section with the Mark break button, and selecting Internal stop. These marks can be saved in the batch file by clicking the Write... button.

The Show info option lets the program write all the usual messages in the GiD messages window.

Comments

Menu: Utilities->Tools->Comments...

Comments can be added to images created with GiD by using this command. Click Apply to display the text on the screen as it will appear when printed - either to a file (see Print to file ) or otherwise; comments can be changed at any time by clicking the Comments button in the Utilities menu (either pull-down or Right buttons menus).

Animation controls

Menu: Utilities->Tools->Animation controls...

Animation controls

This windows lets you create animations while using GiD. Any of these formats can be selected: MPEG, AVI True Color, AVI 15bpp (reduced number of colors: 32768) and GIF. AVI with MJPEG compression is also supported. After giving a name and a delay time between frames (for 20 frames per second, a delay of 1/20 = 50 ms. should be entered) the process can be started by clicking on the start button (film roll and arrow icon); the green LED will change to red.

Simply click on the film roll and arrow button to add frame by frame the pictures you want to include in the animation. The Save redraws option tells GiD to save every redraw automatically to the animation file, so no user intervention is needed to store frames.

The animation can be finished at any time by clicking the end button (closed film roll icon); the red LED will change to green.

Note: To avoid problems when trying to view an MPEG format animation in Microsoft Windows , it is strongly recommended that you use the Default menu to select a 'standard' size and click the Resize button. The graphical window will change to this 'standard' size. When you have finished the animation, simply select Default on the menu and click the Resize button and the previous size will be restored.

Note: AVI files with MJPEG compression can be viewed with xanim on Linux and Unix machines, and with DirectX 8.x installed on Microsoft Windows machines.

Animation script

Menu: Utilities->Tools->Animation script...

Animation script window

This windows lets you manage and define the movements of the animation. You can chose one of the following movements:

Macros

Menu: Utilities->Tools->Macros...

Window for the creation and recording of macros

Windows 'Macros' allow you to create sequences of commands and give them a name. This group of commands can also be recorded from one execution set inside the program.

It is possible to assign a keyboard shortcut to a given macro.

Note: Macros are considered as a user preference and not related to the active model. So, to transfer a set of macros from one user to another it is necessary to copy the appropiated 'Macros.tcl' file (its location is platform dependent)

Selection window

Menu: Utilities->Tools->Selection window...

Mouse menu: Contextual->Sel window

For those functions where some entities are to be selected (creation of a surface or a volume, copying entities, etc.), it is possible to use the Selection window. The selection window lets you take control of the selection process.

Selection window

Note: The Sel window option is only available in the mouse menu during the selection process.

The Selection window has the following options:

Calculator

Menu: Utilities->Tools->Calculator...

vector calculator

This option opens a scalar and vector calculator. Clicking the help button open a dedicated help section.

It is possible to transfer scalar and vector points and distances between the calculator and the main graphical display.

Report

Menu: Utilities->Tools->Report...

Report window

This option creates a report in html format to which figures, comments, titles, etc. can be added. This report can be saved to a file and then reloaded in another GiD session where it can be edited or have more information added to it.

Notes

Menu: Utilities->Tools->Notes...

This is a simple text editor for writing small notes regarding the model. The content is saved in a file named ModelName.txt, with utf-8 encoding.