# The ATILA-GiD Interface - Version 1.4.4

## Content

Features of the ATILA-GiD interface:
- Preprocessor functions:
help about boundary conditions, materials, and problem information
- Postprocessor functions
help about displaying results, deformations, animations, and plotting graphs

Additional help and basic examples:
- How do polarizations work?
- How to use a linear spring element?
- How to use magnetostrictive materials with an inductor?

## What's new?

Version 1.4.4 includes the following changes:
- Compatibility with GiD 7.4 Beta Versions

Version 1.4.3 includes the following changes:
- Magnetostrictive material properties updated
- Animations of Modal and Modal Resantires cases now displayed correctly
- Inductors no longer causes a conflict with other boundary conditions

Version 1.4.2 updates the Pressure boundary condition

Version 1.4.1 corrects the following:
- Display of boundary conditions symbols
- Running of static and harmonic computations

Version 1.4.0 has new features and improvements including:
- Boundary elements can now be created using the BEM boundary condition
- Modal results have been updated to use the mode number in postprocessing
- Interface, radiating, and Z element orientations are set automatically based on the material of the adjacent elements
- Additional menu options allow better control over the ATILA solver.

Version 1.3.1 is a stabilized release of the 1.3.0 version. Only minor corrections are to be reported:
- Modification of the import ATI feature in the Preprocessor mode (and removal of the Postprocessor feature)
- Correction of program flow execution in the postprocessor mode.

Many things have changed with version 1.3.0 of the ATILA-GiD interface:
- File naming no longer limited to 8 characters.
- Improved definition of boundary conditions: Constraints, Loads, and Electrical Potential have a lot more options; some other (Polarizations, Radiating Boundary) have been renamed.
- Addition of magnetostrictive capabilities: definition of inductors (new boundary condition) and full model description in 2D and 3D. Some postprocessing functions are yet to be implemented.
- Addition of postprocessing features (detailed admittance and impedance plots, Von Mises stress, etc.) - More complete results: postprocessing is no longer limited to magnitude and phase, which was confusing, but now includes real and imaginary parts as well (deformations and contour plots).
- Addition of User Preferences menu which allows defining the number of frames in an ATILA animation.
- Addition of the piezoelectric transformer tutorial and complete revamping of the Tonpilz transducer tutorial.
- Addition of simple test and validation cases. More to come in this area.
- Addition of help entries concerning the use of the interface.

Version 1.2.3 of the ATILA-GiD interface adds the Linear Spring element that is used to represent prestress rods and similar elements with a single linear mesh element. This element can be used in 2D and 3D models.

Version 1.2.2 of the ATILA-GiD interface corrects several problems linked to radial polarizations:
- Correction of the cylindrical polarizations
- Addition of a help file explaining how polarizations work

Version 1.2.1 of the ATILA-GiD interface provides:
- Addition of the ATILA Version 5.2.2 User's Manual
- Addition of the PRINTING level (in the problem data section); this feature allows controlling the amount of information displayed in the Process Info window (as well as in the LST file)

Version 1.2 of the ATILA-GiD interface:
- The Read ATI feature allows importing an ATILA mesh in preprocessing mode, even if that file was not created without the ATILA-GiD interface.
- The same Read ATI function can be used in postprocessing mode to display the results. Again, this feature works on files that may have been created with other preprocessing tools than GiD.
- Addition of boundary conditions, such as Cylindrical polarizations (with some limitations), imaginary component of an electrical excitation, etc.
- Addition of Crystal Symmetry classes for piezoelectric materials.
- Addition of Problem Data features, such as Stresses, Losses, etc.
- Modification of the Impedance Plots, now controllabe from a dialog window.
- Addition of several Acoustic Plots, such as TVR, Beam patterns, etc.
- Possibility of displaying the ASCII Values of any plot, i.e. impedance, TVR, and beam patterns. The files are written in Comma Separated Values (CSV) format for easy import into other applications.
- New ATILA Supervisor function to directly open the ATILA supervisor from GiD. This allows greater interaction between GiD and other other functions of the ATILA supervisor.

## General remarks

This version of the interface was developed and tested under GiD Version 7.2. This is therefore recommended for use with the ATILA interface.

To convert a model developed with an earlier version of the ATILA-GiD interface, proceed as follows:
- Open the model
- From the Data menu, select Problem Type | Transform
- In the drop-down list, select Atila/1.3.0
GiD will convert the older model into the new ATILA-GiD interface. Note that some boundary conditions and materials are sometimes lost during this operation, and must be re-applied before computation. The results, however, are inchanged and can be viewed without additional work.

## Questions and Comments

Please direct your questions and comments to the ATILA mailing list at atila@lists.adaptronics.com.

To subscribe to the ATILA mailing list, please visit http://lists.adaptronics.com/mailman/listinfo/atila.