diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..1ff92d76763aa1dab736fbcd5be7349948eb1a92
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+# specific files and folders     #
+##################################
+src/ASTEC/CommunFunctions/libtiff-0.4.0.zip
+src/ASTEC/CommunFunctions/ImageHandling.zip
+
+# astec generated files #
+#########################
+*.pkl
+FUSE
+INTRAREG
+LOGS
+POST
+SEG
+
+# Compiled source #
+###################
+*.com
+*.class
+*.dll
+*.exe
+*.o
+*.so
+*.a
+*.pyc
+
+# Compiled LaTeX #
+###################
+*.aux
+*.blg
+*.bbl
+*.toc
+*.log
+*.synctex.gz
+
+# Packages #
+############
+# it's better to unpack these files and commit the raw source
+# git has its own built in compression methods
+*.7z
+*.dmg
+*.gz
+*.iso
+*.jar
+*.rar
+*.tar
+*.zip
+
+# Logs and databases #
+######################
+*.log
+*.sql
+*.sqlite
+
+# OS generated files #
+######################
+.DS_Store
+.DS_Store?
+._*
+.Spotlight-V100
+.Trashes
+Icon?
+ehthumbs.db
+Thumbs.db
+
+# Merge files #
+###############
+*.orig
+
+# particular directories #
+##########################
+.idea/
+.svn/
+build/
+build*/
+bin/
+binaries/
+external/*/doc
+lib/
+
+# CMakeLists temporary files #
+##############################
+CMakeLists.txt.user
+CMakeLists.txt.user.*
+