diff --git a/doc/gmsh.html b/doc/gmsh.html index f5773e58339b90b4f983c70366f33551f30bc10a..ba12898b6abf67669a0751e31c9244410257f4c5 100644 --- a/doc/gmsh.html +++ b/doc/gmsh.html @@ -40,10 +40,10 @@ generator with built-in pre- and post-processing facilities</h1> <h2><a name="Description"></a>Description</h2> -Gmsh is an automatic 3D finite element grid generator with a built-in -CAD engine and post-processor. Its design goal is to provide a simple -meshing tool for academic problems with parametric input and advanced -visualization capabilities. +Gmsh is a three-dimensional finite element grid generator with a +build-in CAD engine and post-processor. Its design goal is to provide +a fast, light and user-friendly meshing tool with parametric input and +advanced visualization capabilities. <p> Gmsh is built around four modules: geometry, mesh, solver and post-processing. The specification of any input to these modules is diff --git a/doc/texinfo/gmsh.texi b/doc/texinfo/gmsh.texi index 2febc94d14f1ff5f272c490e41fb33008e4d53f8..b8ae368299e277731cc50b240b75e2a68a829513 100644 --- a/doc/texinfo/gmsh.texi +++ b/doc/texinfo/gmsh.texi @@ -334,10 +334,10 @@ integrate them into your own proprietary code). @cindex Introduction @cindex Overview -Gmsh is an automatic three-dimensional finite element mesh generator -with built-in pre- and post-processing facilities. Its design goal is to -provide a simple meshing tool for academic problems with parametric -input and advanced visualization capabilities. +Gmsh is a three-dimensional finite element grid generator with a +build-in CAD engine and post-processor. Its design goal is to provide +a fast, light and user-friendly meshing tool with parametric input and +advanced visualization capabilities. Gmsh is built around four modules: geometry, mesh, solver and post-processing. All geometrical, mesh, solver and post-processing @@ -437,8 +437,8 @@ External solvers can be interfaced with Gmsh through Unix or TCP/IP sockets, which permits to launch external computations and to collect and process the results directly from within Gmsh's post-processing module. The default solver interfaced with Gmsh is GetDP -(@uref{http://www.geuz.org/getdp/}). Examples on how to interface -solvers written in C, C++, Perl and Python are available in the source +(@uref{http://geuz.org/getdp/}). Examples on how to interface solvers +written in C, C++, Perl and Python are available in the source distribution (in the @file{utils/solvers/} directory). @c ------------------------------------------------------------------------- @@ -468,10 +468,7 @@ post-processing views through dynamically loadable plugins. @node What Gmsh is pretty good at, and what Gmsh is not so good at, Post-processing, Overview @section What Gmsh is pretty good at @dots{} -Gmsh is a (relatively) small program, and was principally developed ``in -academia, to solve academic problems''@dots{} Nevertheless, over the -years, many people outside universities have found Gmsh useful in their -day-to-day jobs. Here is a tentative list of what Gmsh does best: +Here is a tentative list of what Gmsh does best: @itemize @bullet @item @@ -484,12 +481,10 @@ parametrize these geometries. Gmsh's scripting language enables all commands and command arguments to depend on previous calculations (see @ref{Expressions}, and @ref{Geometry commands}); @item -import complex models in industry-standard formats like STEP or IGES -(when Gmsh is built with OpenCascade support); -@item generate 1D, 2D and 3D simplicial (i.e., using line segments, triangles -and tetrahedra) finite element meshes (see @ref{Mesh module}, and -@ref{Tutorial}); +and tetrahedra) finite element meshes for CAD models in their native +format (without translations) when linked with the appropriate CAD +kernel (see @ref{Mesh module}); @item specify target element sizes accurately. Gmsh provides several mechanisms to control the size of the elements in the final mesh: @@ -502,12 +497,12 @@ and @ref{Mesh commands}); interact with external solvers. Gmsh provides C, C++, Perl and Python interfaces, and others can be easily added (@pxref{Solver module}); @item -visualize computational results in a great variety of ways. Gmsh can display -scalar, vector and tensor datasets, and can perform various operations on -the resulting post-processing views (@pxref{Post-processing module}); -@item -export plots in many different formats: vector PostScript or encapsulated -PostScript, LaTeX, PNG, JPEG, @dots{} (@pxref{General options list}); +visualize and export computational results in a great variety of +ways. Gmsh can display scalar, vector and tensor datasets, perform +various operations on the resulting post-processing views +(@pxref{Post-processing module}), and export plots in many different +formats: vector PostScript or encapsulated PostScript, LaTeX, PNG, JPEG, +@dots{} (@pxref{General options list}); @item generate complex animations (see @ref{General tools}, and @ref{t8.geo}); @item @@ -534,32 +529,35 @@ small but powerful GUI. @node and what Gmsh is not so good at, Bug reports, What Gmsh is pretty good at, Overview @section @dots{} and what Gmsh is not so good at -Due to its historical background and limited developer manpower, Gmsh has -also some (a lot of?) weaknesses: +As of version 2.4, here are some known weaknesses of Gmsh: @itemize @bullet @item -the BRep approach for describing geometries can become inconvenient for -complex models; -@item -there is no support for Nurbs and only very limited support for trimmed -surfaces in Gmsh's scripting language (however you can import STEP or -IGES models with such features when Gmsh is built with OpenCascade -support); +the BRep approach for describing geometries can become +inconvenient/inefficient for large models. For complex models, or if you +want to use a solid-modeler approach, you should link Gmsh with an +external CAD kernel and import native files directly. (The binary +versions available on @uref{http://geuz.org/gmsh/} are linked with the +free CAD kernel OpenCASCADE, which enables native BREP import as well as +STEP and IGES import.) @item Gmsh is not a multi-bloc generator: all meshes produced by Gmsh are conforming in the sense of finite element meshes; @item -Gmsh was designed to solve academic ``test cases'', not industrial-size -problems. You may find that Gmsh is too slow for large problems (with -thousands of geometric primitives, or millions of mesh/post-processing -elements). +Gmsh's user interface is only exposing a limited number of the available +features, and many aspects of the interface could be enhanced +(especially manipulators). +@item +Gmsh's scripting language is fairly limited, providing only very crude +loop controls and user-defined functions, with no local variables. +@item +there is no global ``undo'' capability. You will often need to edit a +text file to correct mistakes. @end itemize If you have the skills and some free time, feel free to join the -project! We gladly accept any code contributions (@pxref{Information for -developers}) to remedy the aforementioned (and all other) -shortcomings... +project: we gladly accept any code contributions (@pxref{Information for +developers}) to remedy the aforementioned (and all other) shortcomings! @c ------------------------------------------------------------------------- @c Bug reports @@ -613,7 +611,7 @@ next chapter (@pxref{Running Gmsh on your system}) to learn how to launch Gmsh on your system, then go experiment with the GUI and the tutorial files (@pxref{Tutorial}) provided in the distribution. Screencasts that show how to use the GUI are available here: -@uref{http://www.geuz.org/gmsh/screencasts/}. +@uref{http://geuz.org/gmsh/screencasts/}. The aim of the reference manual is to explain everything you need to use Gmsh at the second level, i.e., using the built-in scripting language. @@ -1536,7 +1534,7 @@ evaluation: A built-in function is composed of an identifier followed by a pair of parentheses containing an @var{expression-list} (the list of its arguments)@footnote{For compatibility with GetDP -(@uref{http://www.geuz.org/getdp/}), parentheses can be replaced by brackets +(@uref{http://geuz.org/getdp/}), parentheses can be replaced by brackets @code{[]}.}. Here is the list of the built-in functions currently implemented: @@ -4362,7 +4360,7 @@ the @file{tutorial} directory of the Gmsh distribution. To learn how to run Gmsh on your computer, see @ref{Running Gmsh on your system}. Screencasts that show how to use the GUI are available on -@uref{http://www.geuz.org/gmsh/screencasts/}. +@uref{http://geuz.org/gmsh/screencasts/}. @menu * t1.geo:: @@ -4569,7 +4567,7 @@ questions}, for more information. @section Getting the source Stable releases and nightly source snapshots are available from -@uref{http://www.geuz.org/gmsh/src/}. +@uref{http://geuz.org/gmsh/src/}. If you have a subversion account on geuz.org you can also access the SVN repository directly: