CAE Fidesys 9.0 Documentation

Command Syntax

The execution of CAE Fidesys is controlled either by entering commands from the command line or by reading them in from a journal file. Throughout this document, each function or process will have a description of the corresponding CAE Fidesys command; in this section, general conventions for command syntax will be described. The user can obtain a quick guide to proper command format by issuing the <keyword> help command; see Command Line Help for details.

CAE Fidesys commands are described in this manual and in the help output using the following conventions. An example of a typical CAE Fidesys command is:

Volume <range> Scheme Sweep [Source [Surface] <range>] [Target [Surface] <range>] [Rotate {on | OFF}]

The commands recognized by CAE Fidesys are free-format and abide by the following syntax conventions.

• Case is not significant.
• The "#" character in any command line begins a comment. The "#" and any characters following it on the same line are ignored. Although note that the "#" character can also be used to start an Aprepro statement. See the Aprepro documentation for more information.
• Commands may be abbreviated as long as enough characters are used to distinguish it from other commands.
• The meaning and type of command parameters depend on the keyword. Some parameters used in CAE Fidesys commands are:

  Numeric: A numeric parameter may be a real number or an integer. A real number may be in any legal C or FORTRAN numeric format (for example, 1, 0.2, -1e-2). An integer parameter may be in any legal decimal integer format (for example, 1, 100, 1000, but not 1.5, 1.0, 0x1F).

  String: A string parameter is a literal character string contained within single or double quotes. For example, 'This is a string'.

  Filename: When a command requires a filename, the filename must be enclosed in single or double quotes. If no path is specified, the file is understood to be in the current working directory. After entering a portion of a filename, typing a '?' will complete the filename, or as much of the filename as possible if there is more than one possible match.

  A filename parameter must specify a legal filename on the system on which CAE Fidesys is running. The filename may be specified using either a relative path (../Fidesys/mesh.jou), a fully-qualified path (/home/jdoe/Fidesys/mesh.jou), or no path; in the latter case, the file must be in the working directory (See Environment Commands for details.) Environment variables and aliases may also be used in the filename specification; for example, the C-Shell shorthand of referring to a file relative to the user's login directory (~jdoe/Fidesys/mesh.jou) is valid.

  Toggle: Some commands require a "toggle" keyword to enable or disable a setting or option. Valid toggle keywords are "on", "yes", and "true" to enable the option; and "off", "no", and "false" to disable the option.

• Each command typically has either:

  * an action keyword or "verb" followed by a variable number of parameters. For example:

  Mesh Volume 1

  Here Mesh is the verb and Volume 1 is the parameter.

  * or a selector keyword or "noun" followed by a name and value of an attribute of the entity indicated. For example:

  Volume 1 Scheme Sweep Source 1 Target 2

  Here Volume 1 is the noun, Scheme is the attribute, and the remaining data are parameters to the Scheme keyword.

The notation conventions used in the command descriptions in this document are:

• The command will be shown in a format that looks like this:
• A word enclosed in angle brackets ( <parameter> ) signifies a user-specified parameter. The value can be an integer, a range of integers, a real number, a string, or a string denoting a filename or toggle. The valid value types should be evident from the command or the command description.
• A series of words delimited by a vertical bar ( choice1 | choice2 | choice3 ) signifies a choice between the parameters listed.
• A toggle parameter listed in ALL CAPS signifies the default setting.
• A word that is not enclosed in any brackets, or is enclosed in curly brackets ( {required} ) signifies required input.
• A word enclosed in square brackets ( [optional] ) signifies optional input which can be entered to modify the default behavior of the command.
• A curly bracket that is inside a square bracket (e.g. [Rotate {on|OFF}] ) is only required if that optional modifier is used.