In GiD

The recognized import plug-ins appear in the top menu bar under the menu Files->Import→Plugins:

These dynamic libraries can be manually loaded and called via TCL scripts, in GiD post-process's command line, or using the post-process's right menu 'Files ImportDynamicLib' and the options LoadDynamicLib, UnloadDynamicLib, CallDynamicLib:

For one plug-in library, named MyImportPlugin.dll (or MyImportPlugin.so in Linux or MyImportPlugin.dylib in mac OS X ) to be automatically recognized by GiD and to be loaded and listed in the top's menu Files->Import->Plugins, the library should lie inside a directory of the same name, i.e. MyImportPlugin/MyImportPlugin.dll, under any sub-folder of the %GID%/plugins/Import directory:

Note that only the GiD 32 bits version can handle 32 bits import plug-in dynamic libraries, and only GiD 64 bits can handle 64 bits import plug-in dynamic libraries. Which version of GiD is currently running can be easily recognized in the title bar of the main window (Title bar of GiD's window showing 'GiD x64', so the current GiD is the 64 bits version)

Together with the GiD installation, following import plug-ins are provided:

• OBJ: Wavefront Object format from Wavefront Technologies
• OFF: Object file format vector graphics file from Geomview
• PLY: Polygon file format, aka Stanford Triangle Format, from the Stanford graphics lab.

• PLY-tcl: this plug-in is the same as the above PLY one but with a tcl's progress bar showing the tasks done in the library while a ply file is imported. For all of these plug-in examples both the source code, the Microsoft Visual Studio projects, Makefiles for Linux and Mac OS X, and some little models are provided

  The 'tref.off' Object File Format example

  The 'bunny_standford.ply' Polygon File Format example