There are several options to access the Material Database in GeoDict:

1. Select Settings → Open & Edit Material Database… in the menu bar.

2. Click the Open & Edit Material Database icon in the toolbar.

3. Click the Select Constituent Materials icon in the toolbar and click Open & Edit Material Database in the Select Constituent Materials dialog

4. Click the Open & Edit Material Database button located in the Constituent Materials tab of the Solver Options for the predictor modules (ElastoDict, ConductoDict, FlowDict, DiffuDict, FilterDict, etc.):

5. Click any material button in generator or predictor modules, and then click Open & Edit Material Database in the Material Selector dialog box

After clicking Open & Edit Material Database, the Material Database dialog opens:

In the upper right corner of the Material Database dialog, click Choose… to select a material database. A material database is a folder containing various *.txt files, one for each material (see Saving the material to the database). Selecting a material database thus means to set the path to a material database directory.

The default path for the supplied GeoDict Material Database is

• C:\Users\username\GeoDict20XX\MaterialDataBase for Windows
• /home/username/.geodict20XX/MaterialDataBase for Linux

If the default material database needs to be recovered, it can be copied from the GeoDict installation directory, e.g., from:

An arbitrary folder can be chosen as Material Database. For example, a shared network folder could be chosen as material database folder. This way, the same database can be accessed by multiple GeoDict users.

If the current material database folder is deleted, it is automatically recovered from the installation folder at the next start of GeoDict.

Materials can be added to the Material Database in two ways:

1. Add or copy materials in the material database dialog (please refer to chapter Adding new materials to the database)
2. Copy the corresponding *.txt files from another material database into the MaterialDataBase folder.

In this way, it is also possible to create a new material database with materials that are not shipped with GeoDict.

The GeoDict Material Database dialog consists of two main panels. In the panel on the left side materials can be searched, grouped, added or copied (please refer to chapter Adding new materials to the database) or deleted. On the right side, the currently chosen material can be edited (please refer to chapter Edit existing material database entries).

The material database can be searched with the search box at the top of the material database dialog.

Additionally, the materials can be grouped by Type, by Topic or by Property.

The Types are GeoDict’s material categories (Fluid, Solid and Porous), while the Topics can be user-defined (see also section Edit existing material database entries ).

When choosing Property, all materials are grouped for which a corresponding property is defined.

Clicking on a material selects this material and its list entry is highlighted in blue.

With the Delete button the selected material is removed from the chosen material database. This means the *.txt file is deleted from the material database folder.

The Help button gives directly access to this User Guide.

After editing is done, click Save Database to save the changes to the database (see also Saving the material database) and close the Material Database dialog window. With Cancel the dialog window is closed without saving the changes.