[ < ] | [ > ] | [ << ] | [ Up ] | [ >> ] | [Top] | [Contents] | [Index] | [ ? ] |
8.1 Interactive vs. non-interactive mode 8.2 Command-line options 8.3 Mouse actions 8.4 Keyboard shortcuts
[ < ] | [ > ] | [ << ] | [ Up ] | [ >> ] | [Top] | [Contents] | [Index] | [ ? ] |
There are several ways to actually run Gmsh on your computer(5). The first working mode of Gmsh is the interactive graphical mode. To launch Gmsh in interactive mode, just click or double-click on the Gmsh icon (Windows and Mac), or type
> gmsh |
at your shell prompt on the command line (Unix). This will open two windows: the graphic window (with a status bar at the bottom) and the menu window (with a menu bar and some context dependent buttons). To open the first tutorial file (see section 7. Tutorial), select the `File->Open' menu, and choose `t1.geo' in the input field. To perform the mesh generation, go to the mesh module (by selecting `Mesh' in the module menu) and choose the required dimension in the context-dependent buttons (`1D' will mesh all the lines; `2D' will mesh all the surfaces--as well as all the lines if `1D' was not called before; `3D' will mesh all the volumes--and all the surfaces if `2D' was not called before). To save the resulting mesh in the current mesh format, choose `Save' in the context-dependent buttons, or select the appropriate format with the `File->Save as' menu. The default mesh file name is based on the name of the first input file on the command line (or `untitled' if there wasn't any input file given), with an appended extension depending on the mesh format.
Note that nearly all the interactive commands have shortcuts: see 8.4 Keyboard shortcuts, or select `Help->Shortcuts' in the menu bar to learn about these.
Instead of opening the tutorial with the `File->Open' menu, it is often more convenient to put the file name on the command line, for example with:
> gmsh t1.geo |
Note that, even if it is often handy to define the variables and the points directly in the ASCII input files (you can use any text editor for this purpose, e.g. Wordpad on Windows, or Emacs on Unix), it is almost always simpler to define the lines, the surfaces and the volumes interactively. To do so, just follow the context dependent buttons in the Geometry module. For example, to create a spline, select `Geometry' in the module menu, and then select `Elementary, Add, New, Spline'. You will then be asked (in the status bar of the graphic window) to select a list of points, and to type e to finish the selection (or q to abort it). Once the interactive command is completed, a string is automatically added at the end of the currently opened project file.
Gmsh's second operating mode is the non-interactive mode. In this mode, there is no graphical user interface, and all operations are performed without any user interaction(6). To mesh the first tutorial in non-interactive mode, just type:
> gmsh t1.geo -2 |
To mesh the same example, but with the background mesh available in the file `bgmesh.pos', just type:
> gmsh t1.geo -2 -bgm bgmesh.pos |
You should read the notes in the file `bgmesh.pos' if you intend to use background meshes.
Several files can be loaded simultaneously in Gmsh. The first one defines the project, while the others are appended (`merged') to this project. You can merge such files with the `File->Merge' menu, or by directly specifying the names of the files on the command line. This is most useful for post-processing purposes. For example, to merge the post-processing views contained in the files `view1.pos' and `view2.pos' together with the first tutorial `t1.geo', you can type the following command:
> gmsh t1.geo view1.pos view2.pos |
In the Post-Processing module (select `Post-Processing' in the module menu), two view buttons will appear, respectively labeled `a scalar map' and `a vector map'. A mouse click on the name will toggle the visibility of the selected view, while a click on the arrow button on the right will provide access to the view's options. If you want the modifications made to one view to affect also all the other views, select the `Apply next changes to all views' or `Force same options for all views' option in the `Tools->Options->Post-processing' menu.
Note that all the options specified interactively can also be directly specified in the ASCII input files. All available options, with their current values, can be saved into a file by selecting `File->Save as->Gmsh options', or simply viewed by pressing the `?' button in the status bar. To save the current options as your default preferences for all future Gmsh sessions, use the `Tools->Options->Save' button.
[ < ] | [ > ] | [ << ] | [ Up ] | [ >> ] | [Top] | [Contents] | [Index] | [ ? ] |
Geometry options:
-0
Mesh options:
-1, -2, -3
-saveall
-o file
-format msh|unv|gref
-algo iso|tri|aniso
-smooth int
-order int
-scale float
-meshscale float
-clscale float
-rand float
-bgm file
-constrain
-histogram
-extrude
-recombine
-interactive
Post-processing options:
-dl
-noview
-link int
-smoothview
-combine
Display options:
-nodb
-fontsize int
-scheme string
-alpha
-notrack
-display string
-perspective
Other options:
-a, -g, -m, -s, -p
-v int
-string "string"
-option file
-convert file file
-version
-info
-help
[ < ] | [ > ] | [ << ] | [ Up ] | [ >> ] | [Top] | [Contents] | [Index] | [ ? ] |
In the following, for a 2 button mouse, Middle button = Shift+Left button. For a 1 button mouse, Middle button = Shift+Left button and Right button = Alt+Left button.
Move the mouse:
Left button:
Ctrl+Left button: start (anisotropic) rubber zoom
Middle button:
Ctrl+Middle button: orthogonalize display
Right button:
Ctrl+Right button: reset to default viewpoint
[ < ] | [ > ] | [ << ] | [ Up ] | [ >> ] | [Top] | [Contents] | [Index] | [ ? ] |
Menu bar shortcuts:
Other shortcuts:
[ << ] | [ >> ] | [Top] | [Contents] | [Index] | [ ? ] |