Introduction:

GiD is a pre/postprocessing system for Computer Simulation with methods like Finite Element, Finite differences, etc. In order for GiD to prepare data for a specific analysis program, it is necessary to customize it. The customization is defined in GiD by means of a problem type. The traditional GiD problemtype is defined with a directory with the problemtype name and extension gid, and this directory contains several files. This set of files define the problemtype and contain the full functionality for customizing the preprocess. The next step is that the result of the analysis should be output in the GiD format in order to visualize results in the GiD postprocess. This step can be performed by using the gidpostlibrary, provided with GiD.

The new CompassLIB for problemtypes creation is based on these capabilities and files but uses adittional capabilities provided with the toolkit and does not need anymore most of the preceding files.

Characteristics:

• It couples all the common features of the different problem types, which makes easy its creation.

• It adds additional capabilities to the traditional GiD Problem Types.

• It takes advantage of the XML format features and its hierarchical structure. It stores data more efficiently.

• It permits to process automatically XML documents on a physical data tree view on the GiD window for interfaces creation.

• It facilitates the automatic creation of standard windows in the data tree to enter input dates.

• It couples geometry or mesh entities with identical properties into the called groups using these standard windows.

• It allows to apply efficiently geometry properties and boundary conditions (i.e. constraints, loads, materials…) into groups.

• It is also possible to edit easily the groups properties.

• In order to configure GiD for a specific type of analysis it is possible to set the data tree hiding the required parts automatically.