Estimated completion time = 45 minutes.

In this practical session, you will create a process to run the software application, manipulate user inputs into a form suitable for the batch files, and edit a batch input file into a template with Delimited Object References (DORs). Please follow the instructions below to complete this practical session.

• Log in and Set Mode→Author

• Find the ‘Rectangular Plate’ EASAP in EASA→Applications→My EASAPs.

• Click on it and then in the new page click on the EASAP Builder link.

Now in the Builder we will upload the external files our EASAP will need.

• Select the Files tab just above the Tree in EASAP Builder.

• Click on Browse and select the folder on your computer in which you downloaded and unzipped the tutorial files.

• Select input.txt and click Upload.

• Also browse and upload: plate.txt, femrctpl.exe, plate.html

Note: The file plate.txt contains input data for the plate application. The file femrctpl.exe is the executable for the plate application. The file input.txt contains responses to queries from the plate application that would normally be typed at the command prompt

Now we create a PROCESS for running the external plate analysis '.exe' program.

• Click on the Tree tab.

• Right-click the PROCESSES branch and select Child→Add PROCESS (). Rename it runplate and set parameters below:

For our EASAP the User will input plate dimensions in the GUI and we will convert this data into the same form as the input file plate.txt.

First we translate the plate dimensions into the normalized dimensions that are expected: the plate is divided into a 10×10 grid of elements.

• Right-click runplate and select Child→Add DATA PROCESSING. Expand it.

• Right-click SCALAR and select Child→Add COMPUTE. Rename it dx and set its parameters below:

• Right-click dx select Copy. Now Paste (Sibling). Rename it dy and set Value: L/10

We need to map the edge support conditions (free, pinned or fixed) to their numerical indicators (0, 1, 2) used in the input file.

• Right-click dy and select Sibling→Add MAP. Rename it ibot and set parameters below:

• Right-click ibot and select Copy. Now Paste (Sibling) three times. Rename the new objects itop, ileft and iright. Set the Value: parameter for each to match the corresponding CHOICE LISTs of top, left and right

Now we translate the two lists of the concentrated loads x and y coordinates into the normalized nodal format that the program expects.

• For the list of x coordinates right-click LIST and select Child→Add REPEATED COMPUTE. Rename it xc and set:

• For the y coordinates right-click xc select Copy, then Paste (Sibling). Rename it yc and set:

Now we construct the line in the input file that corresponds to each concentrated load.

• Right-click yc and select Sibling→Add REPEATED EXPAND. Rename it Cloads and set parameters below:

With a REPEATED EXPAND we are creating a string of text from existing COMPUTE objects to match the “plate.txt” format expected by the program.

Note 1: The % symbol acts as the delimiter in the Delimited Object References (DORs) found in the Value: parameter. These DORs will be replaced by the object values when the repeated expand object is processed.

Note 2: The \r\n symbol stands for a new line, so to set the Expansion Separator: parameter, you can click on the Text box button () at the right- end of the Parameter Value cell and then in the text entry pop-up, hit the Enter key once and click on OK

• Time to save your work, click Save.

The next step for the runplate PROCESS is to replace the conventional input text file plate.txtwith our own identically formatted input data.

• Right-click runplate and select Child→Add REPLACEMENT () and set:

It is a good idea to clear away redundant files to minimize disk space usage.

• Right-click replacement1 and select Sibling→Add CLEAR FILESPACE (). Now set:

Check the EASAP tree to ensure that the Processes branch looks like this:

Note: The order of execution within a PROCESS object is always:

1. DATA PROCESSING objects,
2. REPLACEMENT objects,
3. Commands specified in the Run Using: parameter of the PROCESS object,
4. The CLEAR FILESPACE object.

Therefore, the order of objects on the tree within a process object is not important. However, the order of execution of multiple process objects is based on their order on the tree, occurring from top to bottom.

• Save the EASAP and exit EASAP Builder

• In the browser under EASA→Authoring select Template Editor. We will translate the batch file plate.txt into a template containing Delimited Object References (DORs).

The file plate.txt should appear in the table on the Template Editor page.

• Click on the Edit File button on the right side of the row.

The Template Editor will start in a new window

We will replace fixed input values such as text strings and numbers with DORs which will insert values from our EASAP.

• Highlight the entire first line of the file and then type in ‘Project: ’ and then double-click on the project object in the DOR List on the left.

• Now highlight the entire second line of the file and then type in ‘Case: ’ and then double-click on the case object in the DOR List on the left

• On the third line of the file, highlight 1.0 and double-click on dy in the DOR List. Then set its Units setting to ‘ft’ in the toolbar

Tip: If you encounter problems setting the units of the DOR, ensure that the Unit Group parameter has been set properly for the dy COMPUTE. If you need to go back and make a change in EASAP Builder, you can keep Template Editor open and just select Reload under the file menu after saving your changes in EASAP Builder

• Next, highlight 0.5 in the third line and double-click on dx in the DOR List. Then set its Units setting to ‘ft’ as well

• Still on the third line, highlight 1.5, double-click on t and set its Units to ‘in’. Next, highlight 3500 and insert the DOR modulus. Finally on the third line, highlight '0.2' and insert the DOR poisson.

• Now modify the fourth line so that it appears as follows (type commas between double-clicks):
  ibot, ileft, itop, iright

• To save your changes so far, click File→Save.

• Moving to the sixth line below the word ‘LOADS’, you should replace 2.5 with the DOR Lu and then set its Units to ‘ksf’

• Finally, replace the entire seventh line with the DOR Cloads

• Save the file again by clicking on the Save button ().

At this point, the file should appear in the Template Editor as follows:

• Once your file looks correct, exit the Template Editor by selecting File→Exit.

At this point, your EASAP should be ready for its first test run. Even though the OUTPUT branch is empty and nothing will be displayed on the results pages, you can still submit a test run and take a look at what is produced

• In your EASA browser window select EASA→Authoring→Testing then click on the Test EASAP link on the new page.

• After the EASAP window appears, select the third tab labeled '3. Loads on Plate' and set a concentrated load of 1.0 kip at the (50%, 50%) location. Now click on the Submit button under the fourth tabbed pane. After a second or two, a pop-up window should appear when the EASAP has been submitted successfully. Click OK on this pop-up window.

• Now, minimize the EASAP window, and on the browser page EASA→Authoring→Testing you should be taken to a page similar to the following:

• You should now locate the Application that you just submitted in the Testing table. It should be the only entry in the table. If you do not see any rows in the table, try clicking the refresh button on your browser.

Now, look at the Status column for the run you just submitted. It may show a variety of messages. If you see ‘Queued’ then the job is waiting for some other jobs to finish before starting to run. If you see a percentage number, then your job is currently running. Finally, if you see ‘Completed’ then your job is done.

Once your job has completed, you can take a look at some of the files produced by the test run.

• In the Files column for your EASAP run, click on the Browse Files button () and a pop-up window will appear that will look like the following:

First, let’s take a look at the input file plate.txt, and see the result of the DOR replacements.

• Click on the plate.txt link and the window’s display should change to look like the following:

If you do not see the file content shown above, then you may have some errors either in your EASAP settings or in your template input file. You can attempt to fix these problems at this time or wait until Practical Session 8, in which you will be testing and debugging your completed EASAP. After reviewing the file, click on the Back button

• Next, let’s take a look at the output file PLATE.OUT, produced by the underlying software application. Click on the PLATE.OUT link, and the window’s display should change to look like the following:

If you do not see the PLATE.OUT link or the file content shown above, then you have some errors either in your EASAP settings or in your template input file. You can attempt to fix these problems at this time or wait until Practical Session 8, in which you will be testing and debugging your completed EASAP. After reviewing the file, click on the ‘x’ to close the window.

Now, review the values of data produced in the EASAP.

• In the DORs column for your EASAP run, click on the View DOR Information button () and a new table will appear in your browser window that will look similar to the following:

You can browse through all pages of the table to review values of all data in your EASAP.

• Finally, restore and then close the EASAP window used to submit the test run.

You are now finished with Practical Session 5.

Practical Session 4 | Practical Session 6