Subsections

• Example change to resource file

Configuring the Interface

  The interface can be configured to work in different ways; this is achieved by editing the resource file femsys.ini (see section 1.4.1). It is only necessary to set the resources where the default interface settings are not suitable. The resource file can be edited at anytime, even whilst FEMGV is running. The available options are shown in table 1.1.

Versions of the interface previous to this one had to be configured solely using environment variables. These suffer the great disadvantage that they cannot be changed once FEMGV is running. They are however still supported and details are given in table 9.1 in Appendix A. It should be noted though that any resources actually set in the resource file will override the settings of the corresponding environment variables.

Variable Purpose Default Other Options

Femsys.fg-nastran Extended Error Message Option. NO YES

.configuration.error (Controls the writing of error and warning messages to the NASTRAN input file and the FEMGEN log and history files.)

Femsys.fg-nastran Nastran output file (.OP2) Unit Number 12 Integer .results.output

Femsys.fg-nastran Material Files Directory Definition. None dir_name

.material.directory (See Below.)

Femsys.fg-nastran Result Output Control File Definition None file_name

.results.request (See Below.)

The first two of these resources are simple switches, the last two require a string which gives either the relative or full path name of a directory or file on the user's system. More detailed information on the last two variables is given in the materials and results chapters of this manual.

The following example illustrates how to edit the resource file.

Example change to resource file

  The default setting is for extended error messages not to be written to certain files. This is reflected in the line

#Femsys.fg-nastran.configuration.error : NO

in the resource file femsys.ini. To change the resource setting so that they are, the hash (#) should be removed (so that this line is no longer a comment line) and the NO should be replaced by YES. The line should then read

Femsys.fg-nastran.configuration.error : YES

and the change should be saved. This change will then be respected when subsequent analysis input decks are created.