Tutorial 1

To start using GridPro, select "GridPro 2D Topology Builder Panel" from the "Tools" menu. This will set up the workspace for using Tecplot to generate grids with GridPro.

Geometry can be created using Tecplot's poly-line, circle, or ellipse tools, or they may be loaded using the load surface button on the GridPro panel.

Create an ellipse in the center of the screen using the Tecplot ellipse tool. Use the poly-line tool to create 4 segments around the box as shown below. GridPro interprets poly-lines with a single segment as lines that extends infinitely (a 2-d representation of a plane), so the lines do not need form a closed box.

Use the "Place Corner" button to place 4 corners on the surface as shown. Exact placement of corners is not crucial to creating a good grid, corners provide a starting point from which to converge. The time for convergence grid may be affected by placement, but in most cases the final result will be the same.

Next, use the "Link Corners" button to link the corners by clicking on one corner, then the next, as shown below.

Untoggle placement or linking mode if it is still active, then select the ellipse by clicking on it. Press the "Assign Corners" button to enter corner assignment mode for this surface. The surface will be highlighted in green to indicate it is the active surface. Click on the 4 outer corners surrounding the ellipse to assign them to this surface as shown below. Corners that are assigned to the surface will be highlighted with a black box. After you have assigned corners to the ellipse, assign the two adjacent corners to each line respectively.

Once you leave corner assignment mode, the surface will be highlighted in blue to indicate that it has corners assigned to it, and there it is included in the grid generation.

The prefered way to create a grid for a smooth surface such as this ellipse is to create an O-shaped wrap of blocks on the surface. Create 4 more corners radially outside existing ones near the surface, and link them as shown. Notice how this creates 4 blocks that "wrap" around the surface in a loop.

Use the "Insert Corner" button to insert 2 corners on each of the outer boundaries as shown below. Notice that if you attempt to assign these corners, their surface assignments are inherited if both the corners which shared the original link were assigned to the same surface.

Link the corners surrounding the ellipse with the outer corners as shown below. This completes the topology. Notice how each block created by links contains 4 edges.

Once the topology is complete and the corners are correctly assigned, you can generate the grid by pressing the "Generate Grid" button . You will be prompted to save the topology, then the grid generation process (ggrid.exe) will be launched. While the grid generation is running, you can press the "Refresh Grid" button to show the grid converging. The result is shown below.

This grid is saved as "blk.tmp" by default in the current working directory.