What's GiD GiD: a universal, adaptive and user-friendly pre and postprocessor: GiD has been designed to cover all the common needs in the numerical simulations field from pre to postprocessing: geometrical modelling, effective definition of analysis data, mesh generation, transfer data to analysis software and visualisation of numerical results.

Universal: GiD is ideal for generating all the information required for the analysis of any problem in science and engineering using numerical methods: structured, unstructured or particle based meshes, boundary and loading conditions, material types, visualization of numerical results, etc. Adaptive: GiD is extremely easy to adapt to any numerical simulation code. In fact, GiD can be defined by the user to read and write data in an unlimited number of formats. GiD's input and output formats can be customised and made compatible with an existing in-house software. The different menus can be tailored to the specific needs and desires of the user. User-friendly: the development of GiD has been focused on the needs of the user and on the simplicity, speed, effectiveness and accuracy the user demands at input data preparation and results visualization levels.

Applications fields Typical problems that can be successfully tackled with GiD include most situations in solid and structural mechanics, fluid dynamics, electromagnetics, heat transfer, geomechanics, industrial forming processes, etc. using finite element, finite volume, boundary element, finite difference, meshless or particle based numerical procedures.

Who needs GiD GiD is ideal to be used in a multi-user environment in universities, research centers and enterprises for development and applications of different numerical simulation programs. Engineering companies wanting to unify their input data and results visualisation environment for a variety of numerical simulation codes. Universities and R+D centers wishing to provide a multi-user environment for pre-postprocessing allowing the development and applications of a diversity of software in computational science and engineering. Engineers and scientists wanting to have individual access to a powerful pre and postprocessing system for research and applications of numerical simulation codes either in UNIX workstations or in the simplest PC computer environment.

GiD general features Multilingual: GiD environment is fully translated into English, Spanish, Japanese and Russian. Manuals are available into English and Russian. Multiplatfom: GiD has been developed using C++, tcl/tk and OpenGL tools in order to give the best performance and portability on UNIX workstations and PC under Windows or Linux (on 32 and 64 bits), and on MAC OS X 32 bits. Multiple license support: Three types of licenses are managed: attached to a computer, attached to a USB memory stick, or served from a remote computer (floating license). Multiple calcuation options: calculation can be done locally or remotely: an application is provided to allow the running of the calculation remotely from GiD, and after the simulation get back the results to be visualised.

Why GiD GiD reduces time and costs associated with numerical analysis through high performance data input and post-processing in the simplest computer environment. High speed, high quality meshing and data input definition reduces the analysis time for complex geometries and large models. Direct use of CAD data combined with GiD geometric modelling facilities reduces redundancy and costs associated with model development. Easy interface with in-house software codes and CAD systems. Reduced learning time and improves efficiency with an intuitive graphical interface.

User Interface GiD is an effective and easy-to-use geometric user interface. Completely menu-driven. Versatile visualisation tools including rendering, pan, zoom, rotations, etc. Multiple windows allowed. Associative data structures so that the complete geometry database is updated whenever something is altered. All analysis data can be defined on geometrical entities before the mesh is actually created. User-defined and customable menus and interfaces for users own simulation software. Complete set of tools for quick geometry definition. Quick and easy definition of geometry with easy-to-use verification/visualization tools.

PREPROCESS CAD System GiD is a CAD system that features the widely used NURBS surfaces (trimmed or not) for the geometry definition. Typicall geometrical operations can be used as transformations (translations, rotations, etc.), boolean operations in surfaces and volumes. A complete set of tools are provided for quick geometry definition. Import/export CAD geometrical data can be read in DXF, VDA, IGES, STL, Shapefile, Parasolid, ACIS and Rhino formats. Mesh data can be read in NASTRAN, STL, VRML, 3dStudio, CGNS, VTK, formats. Exportation of geometrical data can be done in IGES, ACIS, DXF or Rhino format. Several mesh analysis (mesh) data can be exported using a template file. CAD cleaning & repairing operations Several automatic CAD cleaning operations are made when importing a geometrical CAD model following certain tolerances. There are a handful of graphical tools to detect and repair geometry, allowing the generation of a proper mesh to run a simulation. Different kinds of NURBS simplification algorithms are available to improve the efficiency of the geometrical definition. Meshing GiD allows the generation of large meshes (for linear and quadratic elements) in a fast and efficient manner using several in-house meshers, both for surfaces and volumes, following different structured type criteria: Structured mesher including triangular, quadrilateral, hexahedral, prism and tetrahedral meshes. Unstructured meshes are automatically generated based on quality and spacing criteria defined by the user (or using a background mesh for defining a certain size distribution). Several element types can be generated: triangular, quadrilateral, circles, spheres and tetrahedral. Three unstructured surface meshers available for generating triangle or quadrilateral. They are based in advancing front technique: RFAST: generate the mesh in the surface parametric space (2D), and afterwards mapp the resulting mesh in the three-dimensional space. Mesh is generated faster, but the quality of the resulting mesh may be not so good in some cases. RSURF: generates the mesh directly in the space (3D). It is slower than RFAST, but it gives a better quality meshes. RJUMP: generates the mesh in space (3D) of a group of surfaces, skipping the contact lines between surfaces, following certain criteria: tangency between neighbour surfaces, lines selected by the user or continuity between surfaces curvatures. Three unstructured volume meshers for tetrahedra are available: Based in advancing front technique. Based in Delaunay technique. Based in Isosurface algorithm. Semi-structured volume meshes (structured in one direction of a topollogicaly prismatic volume) of hexahedra, prisms or tetrahera. Cartesian meshes of hexahedra. GiD also can generate 2D and 3D anisotropic meshes (usefull for boundary layer). Several mesh editing tools like edge collapsing, elements splitting, smoothing, etc. allow the user to have the total control of any kind of mesh. Geometry Reconstruction Now GiD contains tools to convert any mesh model to a NURBS surfaces model, this implies big advantages and a large amount of freedom with editing, meshing and running any kind of simulation. Assign data to the geometry or mesh Simple assignment of any kind of data to the geometry and/or the mesh (boundary conditions, material properties, etc.). This information can be sent to the solver with other analysis data, which is easily included because of GiD customization. POSTPROCESS Advanced visualisation tools All the widely used types of visualization for the numerical results coming from simulations are present in GiD, such as contour fill and contour lines, vector plots, isosurfaces, beam diagrams, stream lines and ribbons, surface extrusions, deformations, etc.. Each visualization type has several options such as showing the contour fill of a result over an isosurface of another result. GiD also offers the possibility of visualizing the results on several meshes for adaptive solutions, combining different visualization styles and results, and creation of animated sequences. Graphs All the typical graph types can be done in GiD, like point evolution, which shows the evolution of a result of a point across all time steps of an analysis, line graph, boundary graph and point analysis, in which a result can be plotted against another one for a point and, optionally, for all time steps. Both coordynate systems are supported: cartesian and polar. Graphs can also be exported in ascii format. Big meshes handling The advanced visualization algorithms used, combined with the efficient manner of managing the data gives GiD the capability of visualizing large models with a large amount of results in a fast and user-friendly way. Cuts Planar or spherical cuts can be done in the model to visualize the inner parts of the model. If the model is deformed, then these cuts are also deformed. Import / Export GiD can read simulation result files for postprocessing written in several formats, such as TECPLOT, FEMAP. If the solver linked to GiD cannot write the results in any of the supported formats, a library called GiDpost is provided (at no additional cost)to help the developers in the adaptations task. Meshes can also be exported in STL format.

CUSTOMIZATION GiD: A multisoftware integration platform Thanks to the multidisciplinar philosophy present since the beginning of GiD, its connection with any in-house or commercial numerical simulation code is extremely easy. Also a deep integration involving connection, not only with solver codes, but also with CAD programs, external meshers or visualization tools, is possible. The input and output formats can be customized, the different menus can be tailored to fit any specific needs, the analysis process can be started, monitored and completed from within GiD, just to mention some characteristics. Once the integration is done, the end user can utilize all the GiD geometry creation and reparation, meshing and visualization tools in order to pre and postprocess the numerical simulations. Basic integration level The integration can be done for any user regardless of their programming knowledge. Only a couple of text files, using an easy keyword system, should be written describing the user's problem properties (conditions, materials, etc.) and GiD will automatically create the corresponding windows, allowing the end user to manage the data of the problem: assign or modify conditions, draw properties over model, etc. all in a user-friedly way. Advanced integration level Compass I.S. offers CompassLIB library within GiD. This library uses an XML tree and a Tcl file which accesses all the simulation data contained in the tree. This method offers many more posibilities, including an appealing view of the managed data and a display of the problem and group data during preprocess, which can be created and edited in a graphical way. CompassLIB is available in two licenses: academic (for non-commercial aplications) and professional. Please, for more details visit CompassLib web site, or contact info@compassis.com. Extensions Advanced Integration, with full control of look and behaviour of GiD is made possible by the use of Tcl/Tk scripting language. To facility the development, a debugging tool called RamDebugger is included in all GiD distributions, and can be downloaded at GiD Plus. These advanced customization features, added to the possibility to work with GiD using batch file, makes GiD one of the most flexible tool in its field on the market today. GiD as a generator of products GiD can be understood as a perfect platform to integrate several softwares in a single numerical simulation environment, replacing all the pre and postprocessors related to each one of them. Once a software is connected to GiD, the combined software can be understood as a single product, packaged and commercialized together. The implementation cost is considerably reduced compared to full in-house software development, with an almost equivalent quality in terms of customization for both products. Modules already developed GiD has been already linked with a lot of numerical simulations packages thanks to the development of the respective customization modules, either by the GiD development team or by external companies. Some of them are listed below. Commercial integrated software RAM-SERIES: Structural analysis and design TDYN: Computational fluid dynamics STAMPACK: Sheet stamping VULCAN: Casting process ATILA: Electromagnetics SCIFEA: Super-operator system Research integrated software IBER: Hydraulic simulation X-FINAS: Structural analysis CALSEF: Structural analysis CALTEP: Heat transfer EMANT: Electromagnetics MAT-FEM: Educational FEM Interfaces for third parties software are also available, such as LS-DYNA, PLAXIS, NASTRAN, ABAQUS or FLUENT.