Menu:
Utilities->Preferences...
Toolbar:
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.
The first group of Preferences
are general options, and are used to set the different ways of working with GiD.
General preferences
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- Splash window: If this option is set, when the program is opened again a welcome window is displayed. Variable: SplashWindow. Values: 1,0. Default is 1 (Yes).
- Create new point: Alters the way in which the points are entered in GiD (see Point definition
). Options are:
- Always: If trying to create a new point in the vicinity of an existing one, the new point is always created.
- Ask: If trying to create a new point in the vicinity of an existing one, GiD asks whether to make use of the existing point or create a new one.
- Never: Only allows existing points to be selected. You can also change this when in point creation mode by setting No join until all points are entered.
Variable: CreateAlwaysNewPoint. Respective values: 1,0,-2. Default is 0 (Ask).
- Display coordinates: If set, GiD shows the coordinates in the graphical window. Variable: DisplayCoordinates. Values: 1,0. Default is 1 (Yes).
- Automatic redraw: If this option is not set, redraws caused by window expositions or internal functions are not performed. This avoids spending a lot of time redrawing when workig with large models. Variable: AutomaticRedraw. Values: 1,0. Default is 1 (Yes).
- Popup messages: If beginner is selected then user will receive more popup messages that for a Normal one.
- Reload last model: If set, when GiD is opened it reloads the last model that was saved. Variable: ReloadLastModel. Values: 1,0. Default is 0 (No).
- Play sound: If this option is set, a sound is played to indicate a task has finished. Variable: Sound. Values: 1,0. Default is 0 (No).
- Shrink windows when selecting: If this option is set, some windows are resized when selecting, in order to facilitate the selection. Variable: SmallWinSelecting. Values: 1,0. Default is 0 (No).
- Num of recent projects: number of items to be showed in the recent projects menu (Files menu).
- Num of recent post files: number of items to be showed in the recent post files menu (Files menu).
- Num of recent view files: number of items to be showed in the recent view files menu (View menu).
- Backup time: If this option is set and a model name is given, the model is saved automatically with the frequency given (in minutes). Note:
The mesh is not saved in automatic backup to save time. Variable: BackUpMinutes. Default is 20 minutes.
- Write batchfile: If this option is set and a filename is given, all commands used during the current session are saved to this file. It can be executed later by means of a script file with the predefined commands to be run in GiD (see Batch file
). Variable: BatchFileToWrite.
- Write rotations in batch: If this option is set and the batch file name is given, all dynamic rotations and movements are stored there as well. In this way you can see these movements when reading this batch file with 'Read batch window'. Variable: WriteRotationsInBatch. Values: 1,0. Default is 0 (No).
- Language: This option sets the language GiD is working in. By now GiD messages are fully translated into English, Spanish, Russian and French. RamTranslator is used to deal with message catalogues for GiD and the translation of problem types (to see more information about RamTranslator visit http://www.gidhome.com
).
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
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- Smoothed Elements: If this option is set, when rendering a mesh (see Render
) the intersection between elements with a small angle between their normals will be illuminated as if it were a continuous solid. If it is not set, illumination is made considering every element as planar. Variable: LightSmoothedElems. Values: 1,0. Default is 1 (Yes). The angle (in degrees) is the maximum angle between the normals of two elements to allow smooth lighting between them. If the angle is greater than this, one edge is drawn between them. Variable: CosSmoothedElems. Saved as the cosine of this angle. Default is 0.8.
- Surface drawing type: Lets you choose how to draw the surfaces when in wire frame (normal) mode. Options are:
- None: Surfaces are not drawn.
- Boundary lines: One magenta line is drawn for every contour line. This set of lines has a small offset towards the interior of the surface.
- Isoparametric lines: Two yellow lines are drawn for every NURBS surface, one for u=0.5 and one for v=0.5.
- Both: Draws both Boundary lines and Isoparametric lines.
Variable: DrawSurfaceMode. Default is 1 (Boundary lines).
- Entity labels show: to show identifier number, the layer name of the entity or both of them.
- Draw quadratic elements: With this option you can specify how to visualize quadratic elements. Options are:
- No: If this option is set, quadratic elements are drawn as if they were linear.
- As lines: If this option is set, elements are drawn taking into account all quadratic nodes, but edges are drawn using straight lines between nodes.
- As curves: If this option is set, elements are drawn taking into account all quadratic nodes, and edges are represented using quadratic curves. This option is more realistic, but it may make some visualization aspects slower when dealing with large models.
- Change color:
It is possible to change the default color of several visual items in GiD. One possibility is to change the background color of the GiD graphical window. Variable: BackgroundColor. Value: hexadecimal RGB char. Default is (255,255,255) (white). Other possibilities include the color of the entities in normal mode (no render). These are also accessible through the Variables menu.
- GUI attenuated: Set the GUI appearance to standard or attenuated color. The change is updated after restarting GiD.
- Two colors background: to set a two colors degradation for the background.
- Curve precision: This option determines the precision with which curves are drawn. The internal definition of curves does not change. Selecting the Dynamic option allows this setting to be changed while drawing a curve in order to test the level of precision. Variable: CurvePrecision. Values: 1.0 to 0.0 from best to worst. Default is 1.0.
- Surface precision: This option determines the precision with which surfaces are drawn in render mode. The internal definition of surfaces does not change. Variable: SurfacePrecision. Values: 1.0 to 0.0 from best to worst. Default is 0.6
- Automatic rotation center: If this option is active, each time 'Zoom In' / 'Zoom Out' / 'Pan' is used, the point of the geometry or mesh nearest to the center of the screen will be taken as the center of rotation for subsequent rotations. Variable: AutomaticRotationCenter. Values: 0,1. Default is 1 (yes). This is also available by right-clicking the mouse, under Rotation -> Center. If a new Rotation center is selected (see Rotate center
), then this option is deactivated.
- Fast rotation: This allows fast rotation of the object. Variable: FastRotation. Value: 0,1. Default is 0 (No).
If this option is set various further options are available, though these only apply when rotating.
- Points, lines, surfaces, volumes: This determines whether the entities will be drawn when rotating. Variables: the same. Values: 0,1. Default is 0 (No).
- Always Geometry: With this option set, when you view and rotate the mesh, the geometry is drawn instead. Variable: UseAlwaysGeom. Values: 0,1. Default is 0 (No).
- Draw graphic objects: If this option is not set, when rotating the geometry, some graphical and temporal objects like normals or materials or conditions symbols are not drawn. Variable: DrawGraphicObjects. Values: 0,1. Default is 1 (Yes).
- Curve precision: This is the same as the general item Curve precision, but only applies when rotating. Variable: CurvePrecision. Values: 1.0 to 0.0 from best to worst. Default is 0.8
The third group of preferences
are meshing options.
Meshing preferences
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- Surface mesher: GiD can use three kinds of surface mesher.
- Rfast meshes are the most efficient in speed and reliability. With deformed surfaces they can give distorted elements.
- Rsurf meshes are generated directly in the space. Quality is better but it is slower and can fail for distorted surfaces.
- Rjump meshes are generated directly in the space, and contact lines between surfaces which are almost tangent (less than 10 degrees between tangent vectors) are skipped when meshing. Contact points between almost tangent lines (less than 10 degrees between tangent vectors) are skipped too. With this surface mesher, you can generate meshes with fewer elements than other meshers because it is less dependent on the dimensions of geometrical surfaces. However, it is slower and can fail for distorted surface patches.
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.
- Automatic correct sizes: This preference lets GiD make an automatic mesh size correction when meshing begins. If None is set, no size correction is made; if Normal is set, a size correction is made according to the sizes of geometrical entities and the compatibility between meshing sizes of neighboring entities; if Hard is set, the Normal correction is made and, furthermore, an automatic chordal error criteria is applied to assign sizes to surfaces which are the contours of some volume, so as to improve volume meshes. Variable: AutomaticCorrectSizes. Values: 0 (None), 1 (Normal) and 2 (Hard). Default is 1 (Normal).
- Unstructured size transitions: This controls whether the transitions between different element sizes are slow or fast. Variable: SizeTransitionsFactor. Values: 1.0 to 0.0 from slower to faster transition. Default is 0.6.
- Regular transition near boundary: This preference is to control the transition of sizes patern. If this preference is set, the transitions size follows in a more paralel way the elements in the oundary of the mesh; otherwise, if the preference is not set, the size transition is more uniform along the mesh. The following picture shows an example of this two ways of size transitions. Variable: BoundaryWeightedTransition. Values: 0,1. Default is 1.
Example of size transition if 'Regular transition near boundary' is set.
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Example of size transition if 'Regular transition near boundary' is not set.
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- Allow automatic structured: If this preference is set, functions like Assign sizes by Chordal Error will define some surfaces as structured with highly distorted elements over them. Variable: AllowAutomaticStructured. Values: 0,1. Default is 0 (No).
- Symmetrical structured triangles: If this preference is set, structured triangle meshes will be topologically symmetrical. Variable: SymmetricalStructuredTriangles. Values: 0,1. Default is 1 (Yes).
- Symmetrical structured tetrahedra: If this preference is set, structured tetrahedron meshes will be topologically symmetrical. Variable: SymmetricalStructuredTetrahedra. Values: 0,1. Default is 1 (Yes).
- Boundary layer mesh:These preferences control the boundary layer mesh properties.
- Stretching function: this variable set the stretching function which controls the height of each layer of boundary layer mesh. Options are the next ones, where 'h_i' is the height at level 'i' and 'r' is the grow factor:
- Function 1 (Geometric): This function is the geometric progression, and its expression is: h_i = h_0*(r^0+r^1+r^2+···+r^(i-1)
- Function 2 (Exponential): This function the exponential progression, and its expression is: h_i = exp(r*i + ln(h_0)).
- Function 3: This function is represented by: h_i = h_0 * (1 + i*(1+r*(1+r)*i))) . This function typically grows faster than the Geometric one.
Variable: BoundaryLayer(GrowLaw). Values: 0 (Function 1), 1 (Function 2) and 2 (Function 3). Default is 0 (Function 1).
- Grow Factor: This variable controls whether the stretching function grows slower (smaller values) or faster (bigger values). When Function 1 is used, grow factor must be greater than 1.0, and when Function 2 or 3 are used, grow factor must be a positive number. Variable: BoundaryLayer(GrowFactor). Value: positive real number. Default is 2.0.
The red line below these options shows schematically the difference of heigt of the different layers of boundary layer mesh.
- Boundary layer mesh in separated Layer: if this preference is set, the mesh elements which own to a boundary layer mesh will own to separated layers. The name of these layers will be the same as the Layer name of the geometrical entity where elements are, but with the prefix 'BLM_'. Variable: BoundaryLayer(MeshInSpecificLayer). Values: 0,1. Default is 0.
- Smoothing: You can choose the level of smoothing required to enhance the mesh after the generation. Options are:
- Normal: only the standard smoothing is performed.
- HighAngle: an additional smoothing with angle criteria is performed.
- HighGeom: an additional smoothing with chordal error criteria is performed.
Variable: HighQualitySmoothing. Values: 0 (Normal), 1 (HighAngle) and 2 (HighGeom). Default is 1 (HighAngle).
- Mesh until End: If this preference is set, the mesh generator will continue until it has completed the operation even if there are surfaces or volumes that cannot be meshed. Variable: MeshUntilEnd. Values: 0,1. Default is 1 (Yes).
- No Mesh Frozen layers: If this preference is set, entities belonging to a frozen layer will not be meshed. Variable: NoMeshFrozenLayers. Values: 0,1. Default is 1 (Yes).
- Avoid elements with all its nodes in boundary: if this option is set, there won't be any element in the mesh which has all its nodes in the boundary of the geometrical entity. Variable: AvoidElementsInBoundary. Values: 0,1. Default is 0 (No).
- Chordal error: using this option, user can assign a relative chordal error to the whole model. The value is a percentage, so as the surface and line elements in the mesh won't present more chordal error than this percentage of the element size. Variable: ChordalError(ApplyChordalErrorToModel) (values 0,1) and ChordalError(RelativeChordalError) (percentage, positive value). Defaults are 0 and 0.0 (no chordal error criteria applied).
- Mesh always by default: Changes the default meshing criteria. Entities will always be meshed even if they have higher entities. Example: If surfaces are checked when meshing a volume, volume elements and surface elements will be obtained. Variable: ForceMeshEntities. Values: 0 (No entity), 1 (Points), 2 (Lines), 3 (Points and Lines), 4 (Surfaces), 5 (Points and Surfaces), 6 (Lines and Surfaces), 7 (Points, Lines and Surfaces). Default is 0 (No entity).
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
)
The fourth group of preferences
are geometry exchange (import and export) options.
Exchange preferences
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Import options:
- Automatic Collapse After Import: If this option is set then after reading one IGES file, one global collapse is made. If it is not set, all surfaces and lines will be independent of each other.
Variable: AutoCollapseAfterImport. Default is active (1).
- Automatic Import tolerance: When importing a file or collapsing entities, any points closer together than this distance are considered to be the same (see IGES
). Lines and surfaces can also be collapsed.
Variable: ImportTolerance. Default is 0.001.
- Ignoring Layers: Entities are also collapsed if they belong to different layers.
- Each layer separately: Entities in different layers are not collapsed. (Entities belonging to frozen layers are never considered.)
Variable: CollapseIgnoringLayers. Value: 0 (Each layer separately), 1 (Ignoring Layers). Default is 1 (Ignoring Layers).
- IGES: Curve on surface from 3D: If this option is set, IGES curves on surface entities are created from the direct 3D space definition (recommended); if the option is not set, IGES curves are created from the surface space parameter definition.
Variable: IGESCurveOnSurfaceFrom3D. Value: 0 (space parameter definition), 1 (3D space definition). Default is 1 (3D space definition).
- IGES: Create all in 'layer to use': If this option is set the IGES entities are created in the current layer to use, instead of using the file layers.
Variable: IGESCreateAllInLayerToUse. Value: 0 (IGES entities created in the file layers), 1 (IGES entities created in the current layer to use).
Export options:
- IGES: B-Rep output style: If this option is set, exported IGES volumes are written with Boundary Representation Solid Model style; otherwise its surfaces are written as separated trimmed surfaces without topological information.
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).
The fifth group of preferences
deals with the fonts used inside GiD.
Font preferences
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- Normal font: This is the font normally used inside GiD.
- Fixed font: This font must have the same spacing for every letter. It is used in places where this property is necessary.
- Big font: Used in some dialog boxes.
- Comments/Legend font: Used for comments and legend.
- Labels/Dimensions font: Used in labels and dimensions.
- Asian font: Used to draw asian characters in graphical window.
The sixth group of preferences
deals with numerical formats used inside GiD.
Format preferences
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- Generic format: This option refers to numerical formats used in other GiD utilities (for example in the coordinates display).
- Results format: This option refers to numerical formats in results (Postprocess).
The seventh group of preferences
contains grid options (see Grid
).
Grid preferences
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- Show grid lines: If this option is set, grid lines are shown. Variable: Grid(Show). Value: 0,1. Default is 0 (No show).
- Activate snap: If this option is set, snap is activated. Variable: Grid(Active). Value: 0,1. Default is 0 (No activate).
- Show labels: If this option is set, labels of the major lines are showed.
Variable: Grid(DrawLabels). Value: 0,1. Default is 0 (no show labels)
- X/Y Spacing: These options determine the spacing between grid lines in the X and Y directions. Variable: Grid(SpacingX)) and Grid(SpacingY)). Default value is 1.0 in both directions.
- Major line every: This option specifies the number of lines between principal lines in the grid. Variable: Grid(MajorLineEvery). Default value is 5 lines.
- X/Y Extents: These options determine the extension of the grid in the X and Y directions. Variable: Grid(ExtentsX)) and Grid(ExtentsY)). Default value is 15.0 in X direction and 10.0 in Y direction.
- Draw axis: If this option is set, 2D axes are shown in the grid (X and Y). Variable: Grid(DrawAxis). Value: 0,1. Default is 0 (No axis drawn).
- X/Y Center: These options determine the position of the center of the grid. Variable: Grid(CenterX)) and Grid(CenterY)). Default value is 0.0 (center is at x=0.0,y=0.0).