Summary Database File |
 
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Summary Database File |
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Every time a Summary Output File is created for an analysis, a corresponding Summary Database File (with the extension DBS) is created automatically also. While the former is stored in plain text format to facilitate visual inspection, the latter is stored in binary format for subsequent access during the summary collation process. Each DBS file contains general descriptive information relating to the analysis, such as the analysis title, the start and end times used to generate the summary data, relevant element set definitions etc. It also contains the actual results for each parameter summarised, including:
•Descriptive title
•Parameter type (e.g. motion, force, angle etc.)
•Node/element number
•Degree of freedom
•Scale factor
•Maximum value, and corresponding time of occurrence
•Minimum value, and corresponding time of occurrence
•Mean value
•Range
•Standard deviation
•Numerous keywords are contained in the $SUMMARY POSTPROCESSING section, allowing you to extract pertinent results (e.g. maximum/minimum values) from time domain analyses in succinct tabular format. For example, you could use the *PARA FORCE ENVELOPE keyword to request summary output of statistics of element restoring forces. Or you could use the *STANDARD OUTPUT keyword to quickly request a selection of commonly used outputs.
If you would like to see an example of how these keywords are used in practice, refer to J03 - Summary Collation.