From 5 to 6

Preprocess
New option 'Arc tangents' let the user create a fillet between two lines that share a common end point.
When creating a NURBS surface, if all lines lie in a plane, it is possible to select the boundary lines and the interior lines defining holes at the same time.
It is possible to create a NURBS surface by selecting one line, One surface containing this line will be created.
It is possible to create a volume by selecting one surface, One volume containing this surface will be created.
When volume cannot be meshed, surfaces with bad quality are exposed tot he user in order to help him improve the geometry.
Last meshing size is saved with the GiD model and it appears in the status window and also in the ".central.s info project".
Now, one condition over elements can have automatic local axes.
New 'View' menu in the up menus. It contains mostly the same commands than the 'right button menu' but adding the command 'Multiple windows'. This command permits to have several views of the same project.
New option 'Transform problem type' inside menu 'Problem type' in order to adapt data from an old problem type to a similar newer one.
New window Assign sizes by chordal error. It allows to select one line to check the approximate number of elements that a given chordal error would apply in that line.
New window 'Correct sizes'.
New window 'Macros'. There, several macros can be defined and some keyboard shortcuts applied to them.
New non structured quadrilateral mesher.
New mesh quality criteria: Maximum angle.
Added more filters to the selection (when selecting entities write 'filter:' in the command line) Current filter options are: HigherEntity MinLength MaxLength EntityType BadMinAngle BadMaxAngle MinLength and MaxLength can be used also in elements of the mesh.
Option Mass in list entities gives information about physical properties: length of lines, center of masses, area of surfaces, and volume of solids. It works either for the geometry or for the mesh.
Actualized DXF import filter to version 2000.
New import filter: PARASOLID
New export filters: DXF
Creation of solids: new solids can be created and some of them create the surfaces and the interior volume.
Boolean operation with solids (volumes). Union, subtraction, intersection.
Import ASCII and binary STL mesh (also in the surfmesh option).
Condition MESHTYPE can now be: 'over nodes', 'over face elements' or 'over body elements'.
There is a new preference to set on or off the 'splash window'.
There is a new option that converts the selected NURBS lines or surfaces to other ones very similar to the originals but with and easier definition
The reference manual has a detailed example of problemtype creation.
Preference: 'Surface drawing type' permits to draw the iso-parametric lines in u,v=0.5 for NURBS surfaces.
A background image can be scaled to the size of the window or can be linked to three points of the real model.
Variable 'AllowAutomaticStructured' goes to the preferences window.
It is possible to create volumes when copying surfaces with option 'extrude'.
Smooth elements is now a checkbox in preferences and the angle is given in degrees.
It is possible to obtain interactive help with mouse button 2 or 3 over many windows and options.
Conditions window have a new option to differentiate the entities where it has been assigned, drawing several colors in the window.
New field #FUNC# can be included in a condition. This is a function that has, as variables, the geometry entity num and the position o the mesh element or node. It is evaluated when meshing is finished or when assigning to mesh.
Now, there can be surfaces in symbols definition (*.geo). Useful for renders.
Added in right button mouse menu the rotation commands: plane XY,XZ,YZ
It is possible to delete one material or take it out from the database. This func is mainly for automatization.
Implemented the quadratic 10-noded tetrahedra.
Implemented quadratic surface (2D) contacts.
Implemented a mechanism to detect errors in the execution of external process and notify the user.
Just before calculating, GiD changes current directory to the model directory.
When calculating, if there is and error when writing the calculations file, process is stopped.
When finished generating mesh, a window with number of generated elements and nodes appear.
When writing the calculations file, command *LocalAxesDef(EulerAngles) in the .basfile outputs the three Euler angles.
Options 'Calculate' and 'CancelProcess' are included in right menu 'Utilities' and also in the 'Calculate' up menu. This is useful because they enter in a batch file.
A new way of creating local axes: by axe X and angle.
Now, problemtypes can be stored in the subdirectory 'problemtypes' and subdirectories inside it forming a tree.
Added a ClearSelection option to all the functions that select entities.
Function Signal entities has a new option : SuperposeLines.
Implemented a new rendering scheme where a hidden mesh is generated. Added new preference variable: SurfacePrecision.
Now, when giving a number for a new entity to be created, if there is already one entity with this number, its number is changed.
Option *NodesCoord can be now inside *loop elems. It needs an additional argument that gives the local number of the node inside the element.
When layer ToUse is set to off, ToUse is set to NULL. It means that next created entity will not be in any layer. Pressing again in ToUse with that layer selected, it will permit to use it as active. This process is made to avoid the problem of switching to off the layer ToUse and when creating new entities, they disappear from screen. Very annoying!.
Option to avoid meshing entities in frozen layers.
Option Allow automatic structured. If this preference is set, functions like 'Assign sizes by Chordal Error' will define some surfaces as structured with highly distorted elements over them.
When volume cannot be meshed, surfaces with bad quality are marked.
Last meshing size is saved in the model file and it appears in the status window and also in the "info project".
Import/export materials from one exterior database to the current model.
Convert to NURBS surfaces accepts the selection of several surfaces.
It is possible to select the boundary lines and the holes at the same time when creating NURBS surfaces (planar) and when trimming one NURBS surface.
Option Search in create NURBS surfaces lets the user select one line and creates one surface that contains this line.
Option Search in create volume lets the user select one surface and create all the volumes that contain this surface.
Implemented offset for the geometry.
Now, when creating one arc, the second point will always be contained inside it.
It is possible to change the sense of all line types. Also if they have higher entities.
It is possible to change the default color of several entities when displaying in normal mode (norender).
New copy and move operation: Offset.
Color of geometrical entities in normal render mode can be selected by the user.
When intersecting surfaces, by default the resulting surfaces are divided.
New *tcl command in template file (.bas) 
 
Postprocess
Added Standard Bar with common buttons like new, open, print, exit, ...
Added 'Animation controls' window that allows to create movies while rotating, moving, etc. between pre and post automatically or at user request.
Added GIF, BMP and PPM output.
Animations can be saved in AVI True Color, AVI 32768 colors and GIF animated format.
Support for 'high resolution' textures, so images can be of any size.
Added a 'High resolution' option that allows the creation of high detailed pictures.
Added a 'Page Setup' window to facilitate the printing process.
Added command line option to activate 'software rendering' in windows, as workaround for problems appeared while using accelerated OpenGL.
Added beam and points elements.
Enhanced the mesh format to allow mixing of elements on the same file.
Added Gauss Points Support for lines/triangles/quadrilaterals/tetrahedras/hexahedras: now and old format on manual.
Support for multiple gauss points on several meshes (with the same or different element types).
ContourFill/ContorLines and others will do a local interpolation from gauss points with internal coordinates to the nodes to draw the results.
Added new result type (main stresses vectors: data_type = 5: vector_1 vector_2 vector_3 mod_1 mod_2 mod_3
Added new result type (local axes): data_type = 6: angulo_euler_1 angulo_euler_3 angulo_euler_3local axes are drawn.
On 'Files' menu added several options:· Save 'as ASCII files': saves all the postprocess meshes/sets and results on ASCII files.· Save 'as one binary file': saves all the postprocess meshes/sets and results on one binary files to speed up further loading processes.· Save 'Binary results': saves the results on one binary file to speed up the switch between pre and postprocess.
Added join sets to create one set that withholds several ones.
Added collapse nodes option to collapse very near nodes on the viewed sets.
Undesirable meshes/sets/cuts can be deleted.
Added 'Status' window and list>nodes/elements options.
Added divide lines: to extract lines from a set.
Added options 'exact' and 'parallel planes (with distance)' when dividing sets.
Cuts can be converted to sets, for further cuts, or to save them with theirs results.
By default the last step of the analysis is selected.
Each component of Main stresses can be selected individually when doing "display vectors"
One axis of the local axes result type can be selected when doing "display vectors".
Added scalar and vector diagram result visualization, useful for lines when drawing beams, with 'show elevations' option.
Added 'Define Contour Limits' window, 'define max/min limit' and 'reset limits' entries on the icon bar.
Legends can be displayed outside the graphical windows in a independent window.
Point Options windows added, which allows changing point size and detail ( with textures). Also acts on vectors when using the 'point' ending.
Line Options windows added, which allows changing line size and detail. Also acts on streamlines.
Added 'Utilities>Redisplay' option to redo contourfills, contourlines and vectors after changing options. This is automatically done when changing some options through the 'top menu'.
Added option 'VectorDetail' to allow changing between: point/lines/2/4/8 triangles to draw the arrows head of vectors.
Added option 'no label' for streamlines.
Added option 'fix absolute limits' to fix limits for all meshes/sets and all steps.
Geometry/Mesh Conditions can be shown when a project is loaded in preprocess.
Added a 'border graph' window that make easier the creation of border graphs.
Added option 'Step delay' and 'add step' to add whole steps to animation file, instead of adding several frames to reach the delay.
Changed algorithm to get lines and triangles of volume meshes, 80% faster