2. General tools

This chapter describes the general commands and options that can be used in Gmsh's ASCII text input files. By “general”, we mean “not specifically related to one of the geometry, mesh, solver or post-processing modules”. Commands peculiar to these modules will be introduced in Geometry module, Mesh module, Solver module, and Post-processing module, respectively.

Note that, if you are just beginning to use Gmsh, or just want to see what Gmsh is all about, you really don't need to read this chapter and the four next ones. Just have a quick look at Running Gmsh, and go play with the graphical user interface, running the tutorials and demonstration files bundled in the distribution! Most of the commands and options described in the following chapters are available interactively in the GUI, so you don't need to worry about Gmsh's internals for creating your first geometries, meshes and post-processing plots. Once you master the tutorial (read the source files: they are heavily commented—see Tutorial), you might want to come back here to learn more about the specific syntax of Gmsh's commands and esoteric options.