Overview of File Contents

It is one of the characteristics of VisualFEA that all data pertaining to the whole procedure of finite element analysis are contained in a single file. A VisualFEA data file consists largely of two parts: modeling data and analysis data. If they are being accessed by an external solver and the analysis results are to be visualized by VisualFEA, the first part becomes the input to the solver and the second part is the output written from the solver.

Some parts of VisualFEA data are dedicated for user interface, graphical rendering and so on. So, not every part of the file is related to solvers as indicated in the following figure. Only the items enclosed within rectangular frames need be accessed from solvers. The other parts of the file may be ignored by external solvers. However, they should be kept in the original form created by VisualFEA, in order to be read by VisualFEA again for postprocessing.

<Overview of VisualFEA file structure>