The Graphical User Interface (GUI) of the system includes menus, graphical windows and icons1 in a consistent and effective screen layout. Using prototype icons1 and dialogue boxes, the users can control and optimize numerical processing; in particular, they can assign and update multigrid computation parameters and control function coefficients to easily modify the spacing of grid lines. By the interactive assignment of computational parameters, the user can control both the global fineness and the local interior spacing of the grid. The design of this integrated system has been partially supported by the Italian Space Agency (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana). Researchers working at or co-operating with IAC on grid generation not only participate in but also promote and support initiatives to group together developers of grid generation techniques and user communities in order to diffuse results and exchange ideas. They contribute in national and international conferences as both speakers and minisymposia organizers in order to propose and disseminate advances in grid generation and debate new useful trends. The last IAC participation was in the 5th International Conference on Numerical Grid Generation in Computational Field Simulation, April 1996, at Mississippi State University. This meeting confirmed the worldwide interest in grid generation as a basic step in Computational Field Simulation. CFS is recognized as a powerful tool in a large spectrum of application areas besides fluid dynamics, in atmospheric and ocean science, heat and mass transfer, geophysics, solid mechanics, and other physical field problems. The large number of participants and represented countries were a concrete sign that grid generation is extending its range of potential application from its initial area to a wide number of multidisciplinary field simulation problems.
