Diffpack GUI: The Grid Utility

The Diffpack GUI offers also an experimental user interface to the grid generators contained in Diffpack. To invoke the grid utility, click the icon on the toolbar, or choose the option "Grid generation..." from the "Tools" menu. This results in a new rendering window for the generated grid.

The grid rendering window contains a toolbar with the following options:

Show or hide the Grid Control Panel, see also the table below. Save the current grid as a VRML file. Copy the current grid image as a bitmap. Zoom in on the current grid display.

By clicking the Grid Control Panel icon (), you open a new window that allows you to choose between different mesh generators. The different variants are shown below.

	The StdGeom preprocessor enables the definition of grids consisting of a standard shape like box, circle, cube, sphere with or without holes. Click the "Generate" button to generate the grid. It will then be shown in the rendering window.
	The PreproBox preprocessor allows creation of lattice type grids in 1D, 2D and 3D. After a grid is generated, use the "Render" button to redraw the grid, possibly showing only boundary segments matching the indicated boundary indicator check marks.
	The SupelSet preprocessor can generate meshes from a coarse (superelement) grid which you define. The lower part of the window contains statistics on the matrix pattern, which also can be displayed graphically by clicking the "Show sparsity pattern" button. To change the numbering scheme, possibly leading to a better sparsity pattern, click "Renumber unknowns".
	This dialog allows you to load existing grid files for display and renumbering.

The following picture shows a grid modelling a Norwegian fjord. The grid has been used to simulate the effects of tidal waves and landslides.