# Preprocessor Functions

The preprocessor functions available in the ATILA-GiD interface can be accessed via icons and/or menus.

## Preprocessor Icons

| Boundary conditions: | Opens a window from which boundary conditions can be selected and applied to the geometry or mesh.
|  | Menu equivalent: Data | Conditions
| Elastic materials: | Elastic materials are defined by a density, Young's modulus, and Poisson ratio. Losses can be included and magnetic field computation can be activated.
|  | Menu equivalent: Data | Materials | Elastic
| Piezoelectric materials: | A choice of 19 crystal symmetry classes is offered, with easy definition of the elastic, piezoelectric, and dielectric constants. Losses are divided into mechanical (delta m), piezoelectric (delta p), and dielectric (delta e). Magnetic field computation can be activated.
|  | Menu equivalent: Data | Materials | Piezoelectric
| Magnetostrictive materials: | Define magnetostrictive materials. The material constants are elastic, piezomagnetic, and permittivity. Additionally, losses (mechanical, piezomagnetic, and permeability) can be included.
|  | Menu equivalent: Data | Materials | Magnetostrictive
| Magnetic materials: | Magnetic materials are defined by only the magnetic permeability.
|  | Menu equivalent: Data | Materials | Magnetic
| Fluid materials: | The fluid materials require a density and bulk modulus. Losses, as well as magnetic field computation, can be included.
|  | Menu equivalent: Data | Materials | Fluid
| Frequency Intervals: | The computation frequencies for a harmonic analysis are declared in the form of intervals of frequencies. Three definitions are available: single frequency, linear distribution (between the minimum and maximum frequencies of the interval), and logarithmic distribution. Several frequency intervals can be defined for the same harmonic analysis. The ATILA-GiD interface will automatically merge all the defined intervals, order the frequencies, and remove duplicate values.
|  | Menu equivalent: Data | Interval Data
| Problem Data: | Clicking on this icons opens a window from which the type of computation (static, modal, modal resantires, harmonic, and transient) can be selected. Other parameters that are requied for the computation can be defined there. The mesh units (m, mm, µm, nm, ft, in, mil) can be selected in this section as well.
|  | Menu equivalent: Data | Problem Data

## Preprocessor Menus

The Data Menu:

- Problem Type:
This is the default GiD function to select the current problem type.
To import an ATILA-GiD model that was defined in an earlier version of the interface, select Tranform. Then, in the drop-down list, select Atila/1.2.

- Conditions:
This function opens the boundary condition window. See paragraph above.

- Materials:
Select Elastic, Piezoelectric, Magnetostrictive, Fluid, or Magnetic to open the appropriate material definition window. See paragraph above.

- Interval Data:
This function is used to defined the frequency intervals of a harmonic analysis. See paragraph above.

- Problem Data:
All the information pertaining to the current type of analysis is located in this section. See paragraph above.

- Local Axes:
The definition of the polarization of piezoelectric materials requires local axes. This function can be used to define, modify and display current local axes.
This menu is also accessible from the Polarization boundary condition.

The ATILA Menu:

- ATILA Help:
Access the help files and tutorials.

- ATILA Supervisor:
To open the ATILA Supervisor in the current working directory, or, if it exists, the current ATILA file.

- Open Shell:
Start the Windows Explorer in the current workking directory.

- Generate Results:
Use this function to generate results from a solved problem. This is useful when you import a model that was created and solved in an earlier version of the interface.
Note that this function should not be used to generate results for an ATI file that was created outside of GiD. For such files, it is better to use the Read ATI feature in the postprocessing environment directly.

- Import ATI:

This function allows importing an ATILA mesh (*.ati extension), even if it was created without the ATILA-GiD interface.
Results associated with the ATILA project will be imported at the same time. If a PST file is found, then you will be prompted to view the results.
Note that only the mesh is imported. No geometry information is available to import.

- Preferences:
Selecting this function will show some of the internal parameters used by the ATILA-GiD interface.
In the Preferences, the user can select the number of frames that are displayed during an animation (see postprocessing features).

- About:
Information about the current ATILA-GiD interface version.

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