The ANSYS 6.0 Product Suite includes its time-tested, industry-leading applications for structural, thermal, mechanical, computational fluid dynamics, and electromagnetic analyses, as well as solutions for transient impact analysis. 

ANSYS software solves for the combined effects of multiple forces, accurately modeling combined behaviors resulting from "multiphysics" interactions. The software also features advanced nonlinear material simulation and the best solvers money can buy. 

For more information on the capabilities of this software check out the vendor site.  

To start Ansys 6.0 from a command line type: xansys or you can start from the CDE Application Manager. The xansys icon can be found in the Local_Apps or Programs folder depending on which system you are logged into. 

An extensive help is available from within the ANSYS product. Just click Help on the menu bar and select ANSYS Help from the list. 

Applies Computation Fluid Dynamic technology to solve almost all fluid engineering problems.

Only 25% of CFX cost is carried by ACN and it has a limited number of licenses available. As of this writing there are 10. Please share. The remaining cost of CFX is borne by the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MIE) Department and researchers. 

There are two ways to set up access to the CFX software: permanent and temporary. If you use CFX regularly you may want to use the permanent way. The temporary way reduces clutter in your home directory but requires more typing each time you start CFX. Permanent Access 

Enter this command in any terminal window: 

/home/mecfd/cfx/install/config_user 

You will be prompted 

Do you want this script to alter your setup files (y/n)[y]? 

You must answer y for a permanent installation. After using config_user you only need to type: 

cfx5

after any login or the current login to start CFX.

Temporary Access 

The scripts built if your setup files are not altered are stored on the system. They can be used for temporary access to CFX. 

csh shell startup 

For C-shell users: 

source /home/mecfd/cfx5.login 

cfx5 

ksh/sh/bash startup 

For Korn shell, Bourne shell, and Bourne-Again shell users: 

. /home/mecfd/cfx5.profile 

cfx5 

MATLAB is an interactive program for numeric computation and data visualization. Academic Computing and Networking staff have little experience using this software, so users are urged to take advantage of the help information within the software, and the vendor's webpages: 

• The MathWorks home page  
• Educational products and services 

The MATLAB software runs in an X-windows environment. However, unlike many X-windows packages, it also uses the xterm or Shell Tool window to communicate with the user. If you intend to continue with other processing while running MATLAB, you may wish to open an extra window from which to launch the software. To start MATLAB use the command MATLAB as shown below:

>> matlab 

< M A T L A B > 

Copyright 1984-2005 The MathWorks, Inc. 

Version 7.1.0.183 (R14) Service Pack 3 

August 02, 2005 

To get started, type one of these: helpwin, helpdesk, or demo. 

>>

MATLAB will continue a dialogue with you using the terminal window from which you launched the software, while at the same time displaying graphics windows. Use the MATLAB command intro to see some of the capabilities of the software. 

If you need to exit MATLAB in the middle of a dialogue, you may need to use CTRL-C to interrupt the process and get back to the >> prompt. This is likely to generate a few error messages. 

To exit MATLAB from the >> prompt, enter: 

>> quit   

MATLAB exits with a cryptic message, such as: 

3784 flops.   

This refers not to failures, but to the number of floating point arithmetic operations performed by MATLAB. 

SAS(8.2) is a statistics package.

To start SAS, type "sas" or click the icon "SAS" in the "Programs".

The SAS software package is available on all of the Sun workstations and login servers owned by ACN. However, you do not have to be working from the console of one of these machines to use SAS, as they all support remote login and telnet access. 

You can use the Unix commands machines -b or rup machine-name to find out which of the workstations and login servers is the least busy. High load average numbers indicate high activity. 

Hardcopy plotting support for SAS is provided through the Campus Copy Center (copyctr). SAS generates postscript which may be directed to the Copy Centre laser printers in University Centre. Laser printing is a charged service. Invoices are sent monthly by e-mail to account owners who have used charged services such as laser printing or dial-in modem time.

SAS allows you to create SAS data sets, SAS data views and various sorts of SAS catalogues, which are stored in SAS libraries. It is recommended that you use a Unix directory for each SAS library. Normally all data sets and catalogues related to a particular project would be stored in the same library. We recommend that you keep related text files in a separate directory from the SAS library. 

To create a directory for use as a SAS library, use the Unix mkdir command. For example, to make a library directory called saslib1: 

mkdir saslib1   

To be sure that SAS will find the correct directory, it is best to use the fully qualified Unix path name in your SAS libname statement. You can use the Unix "pwd" command to identify the full path of the file. The libname statement used to identify the directory would look like: 

libname lib1 '~myid/saslib1'; 

Where ~myid is a reference to the root of the directory structure for the account myid, this is called the home directory. 

SAS allows you to define other files that are not SAS libraries, using the 'filename' statement. The main reason for doing this is to tell SAS where to find a raw data input file, or where to write reports generated by PUT statements in a data step. An interesting feature of SAS filenames under Unix is that you are allowed to use the Unix concept of a "pipe" to have the data generated by a Unix command, or to send the output records to another Unix command.

Examples:

filename newdata 'datafiles/oct93';  

This means: "From now on, the file called newdata refers to the file oct93 in the datafiles directory." Since a fully qualified file name was not used, 'datafiles' must be in the same Unix directory from which you invoked SAS. 

filename rawin pipe 'zcat study.Z';  

This means "use a temporary, uncompressed copy of study.Z as file rawin."

filename report pipe 'lpr -Peng524';

This means "send file report directly to the "eng524" printer."

When you run SAS under Unix, SAS will try to find an autoexec.sas file. First SAS checks your current working directory and if not found continues to check each parent directory back to your home directory. If an autoexec.sas file is found then the SAS commands in it are executed at the end of SAS initialization. If there is no autoexec.sas file found in this path, SAS will run the installation supplied commands in the file /usr/local/sas611/autoexec.sas.

An autoexec file is very handy if there are some SAS commands that you issue almost every session, such as OPTION commands or LIBNAME commands. However, if you create your own autoexec.sas file, it is recommended that you make the first line: 

%include '!SASROOT/autoexec.sas';

so that any installation supplied commands are also executed. The SAS command %include means 'include this other file of SAS commands to execute'.

If you run SAS in batch mode, non-interactive mode, or interactive line mode, the behaviour of the SAS software is largely independent of the hardware that you are using. All that is required is a basic knowledge of the SAS language, and how to manipulate and edit files using operating system commands and an editor. If you are familiar with a Unix text editor, such as "pico" or "vi", you should not have much difficulty running SAS under Unix in these modes. 

However, running SAS in Display Manager mode offers more flexibility and help features than the above modes, and can be quite attractive if you have access to a graphical terminal (GUI) from which to launch SAS. Some of the newer products in SAS, such as Spectraview, will only work within the Display Manager. The SAS Program Editor window within the Display Manager provides a text editor which is easier to learn than "vi", and more convenient than "pico" for working on large files.

The basic syntax to run SAS is: 

sas [filename] [-options] 

where filename represents a file of SAS statements to be processed, and -options may be any number of SAS command options. 

Using an X-windows terminal, first log in to the terminal's default server. 

If the login server to which your X-windows terminal is connected runs SAS, then the sas command is all you need to run the display manager within an X-window environment. 

In this environment, SAS will start up with pull-down menus, scroll bars, etc., as you would expect from a Windows application. If you prefer to work with the command line instead of the pull-down menus, the global options selection "action bar off" can be used to turn off the pmenu command. 

SAS/Graph device drivers for X-windows are XBW, XGRAY and XCOLOR. Additional information about using SAS under X-windows can be found using man sas from your Unix shell prompt. 

As the BMDP programs are also available on ACN's Unix login servers, it is possible to execute BMDP code from within a SAS procedure. The following example shows how to run a BMDP procedure using an existing SAS dataset as input. Three external files will be created by this program. They are used to hold temporary copies of the dataset, the BMDP source code, and the BMDP procedure output.

filename for003   '/tmp/unit003.dat';  filename ft15f001 '/tmp/unit015.dat';  proc bmdp prog=bmdp7d data=sasuser.bmdpdata unit=3;  parmcards;  /input file is '/tmp/unit003.dat'. code is 'bmdpdata'.  /variable names are var1, var2.  /histogram grouping is var1.  variable is var2.  /comparison  /print ttest.  /end  run;

For bug reports and other related materials, please visit the SAS Technical Support page.

SPSS (6.1.4) is a complete tool kit of statistics, graphs and reports for use in a variety of applications in commercial, academic and government settings. Applications include surveys, marketing and sales analysis, data mining, quality improvement and statistical research of all types. If this is the your first time using SPSS you need to create an SPSS directory by typing "mkdir spss" under your home directory. To start SPSS

1. Type "spss"
2. Click the File icon from windows "SPSS Startup Preferences"
3. Choose the spss directory you just created and click on the ok icon from window "SPSS: Select Journal File">
4. Click on ok from the window labeled "SPSS Startup Preferences"

The SPSS will launch two working windows: Data input and output windows. SPSS has on line help to teach you how to use SPSS. There is a Specification page for SPSS 6.1 for UNIX and OpenVMS on SPSS's home page. More information can be found on the SPSS website.

SPSS is an integrated system for data analysis. SPSS for Unix contains a Processor that reads and processes SPSS commands and a Manager that helps build commands and review output. The Manager includes a menu-based command generator, an online glossary, editing capabilities, and other features designed to familiarize you with the language. This document is designed as an introduction to running SPSS on Unix. It is not a tutorial on SPSS. To benefit from this document you should have an SPSS session running as described below.

SPSS consists of a base system and several options. Documentation for the base system consists of: 

• SPSS for Unix: Operations Guide 
• SPSS Base System User's Guide 
• SPSS Advanced Statistics User's Guide 
• SPSS Reference Guide 

Each option comes with a corresponding manual: 

• SPSS Trends 
• SPSS Tables 
• SPSS Categories 
• SPSS Graphics 

Some manuals are available in the Science Library, otherwise contact IST Service Desk.

To run the SPSS Manager, you must be working in a Unix X-Windows environment. To begin an SPSS Manager session: 

• Create an SPSS directory. At the Unix prompt type: 

server% mkdir spss 

• Change to this directory: 

server% cd spss 

• To copy a test SPSS file to this directory: 

server% cp /usr/local/SPSS*/Samples/English/demo.sav ./ 

• To start up SPSS using the file you have copied: 

sserver% spss ~/spss/demo.sav & 

This opens SPSS Manager Windows, including the Output window, where SPSS displays output during the session, and the Input window, where commands can be entered. 

If you wished to start with a blank screen, you would type: 

server% spss &

You could then retrieve an SPSS file from within the manager using the mini-menus described below. 

The Input window is active by default, as indicated by the status line. You can scroll the window, enter SPSS commands, open existing SPSS command files, edit these files, and save them. The output window handles similar functions for listing files. You can press Esc-s to switch windows and Esc-z to zoom a window to full screen. Pressing Esc-Esc will restore the window to its original size. To execute the SPSS commands, position the cursor at the top of the input window, and press Esc-0 followed by Enter. 

The Manager has 10 mini-menus that can be accessed by pressing Esc followed by numbers 1-0. Among other functions, these menus let you open/close files, insert contents from existing files, search for text, and run SPSS commands. These menus are similar to the ones in SPSS/PC. 

By default the Manager is in the edit mode, which lets you type SPSS commands in the Input window. You can switch to the menu mode by typing Esc-m and return to the edit mode by typing Esc-e. The menu mode lets you select commands from the menus and paste them into the Input window. This is time consuming but helpful if you are not familiar with SPSS; the edit mode is much more efficient otherwise. 

To see a list of the key combinations available in the Manager, press Esc-r. To execute a function, simply press the key combination displayed on the screen for that function. The Manager will exit the help screen and execute the function. To view the syntax chart for a command, press Esc-x and type the name of the command whose chart you want to view. Once the chart is open you can scroll using the cursor keys. You can also use the key combinations displayed on the screen to scroll alphabetically through command names to see their syntax. You can press Esc-x to make another request. 

If there is a statistical term in SPSS output that you do not understand, position the cursor to the term, press Esc-g to enter the term into a request field, and then press Enter to open the "glossary window" to see the term's definition. The glossary window functions similar to the "syntax chart" window. You can copy the glossary definition into the active window by pressing Esc-8. 

Mini menus are available at the bottom of the screen in the SPSS Manager by pressing Esc key followed by number keys 1-0. The following is a list of the mini menus:

To begin an interactive session, type: 

server% spss -m -p 

The -p option is used to display the output a screen at a time. To send output to terminal and a file, use the -t option. For example: 

server% spss -m -t value.lst 

would copy the output to file "value.lst". You can also open a listing file any time during the session by typing at the SPSS prompt: 

SPSS> set listing test.  SPSS> data list ...

If an SPSS command will not fit in 80 columns, press <Enter> before column 80 and continue typing the command. You cannot break a line in the middle of a word or a quoted string. Help in the interactive mode can be accessed by typing:

? help_topic 

Use the + and the - keys to navigate the Help system and press <Enter> to exit. You can cancel command execution by pressing Ctrl-c. This will return you to the SPSS> prompt. To end the interactive session, run the finish command. 

SPSS lets you execute command files from the Unix prompt. For example: 

server% spss -m value.sps 

will process the file and displays the output on the screen. To store the output in a file, type: 

server% spss -m value.sps > value.lst 

To run the process in the background so you can execute other Unix commands, append an '&' to the previous command.

The GRAPH command does not work on our system. If you decide to try it anyway and it hangs up your terminal, press Ctrl-c.

To start the Python interpreter, type: 

python

on any shell command line. 

Type CTRL-D (ie; EOF) to stop the interpreter.

Documentation is available at Python | Our documentation.

See the README file in /usr/local/share/doc/python/Demo for some demonstration programs.

You can find a FAQ that may answer some questions in Python Frequently Asked Questions.