The analysis tree menu input is where the user creates either a thermal simulation, moisture analysis or structural analysis.

A number of different analyses exist for each section, for example a thermal analysis can be a 1D steady state analysis or a 1D transient analysis of a cylinder structure.

Currently a moisture analysis is limited to 1D absorption or desorption of water in a heterogeneous media.

In a structural analysis the user can example a thin section or thick section laminate, a thick section cylinder or study problems such as a laminate with a compliant interlayer, a discontinuous tile array or an impact problem on a thin plate strucuture. In some instances the analyses can be coupled, for example the results of a transient thermal analysis on a cylinder can be transferred to a stress analysis for the same cylinder. The transient thermal analysis results can  be overlayed on the results of processing and loading the cylinder, thus giving a true measure of stresses and strains within the cylinder during it's lifetime.

Click on the various sections to learn more about the analysis options available in CDS3 

Right click functions:

New: Creates a new analysis, thermal, moisture or structural.

Rename: renames the selected analysis

Duplicate Analysis: Duplicates the selected analysis or analyses. If the analysis menu tree is right clicked, all analyses are duplicated. All duplicated analyses are renamed with a "copy" prefix to identify them as a copy of an existing analysis and not confuse the user with another analysis. This also applied to a thermal, moisture or structural subtree.

Delete Analysis: Deletes the selected analysis

Load: Splits the window into two sections and opens a dialog box. Open a previously saved file and the data from that fill will be loaded into the top section. The user can then select any or all items and load them into the current environment.

Save Selected: Saves the selected item to a spreadsheet file. The created file is tab delimited and can be opened in notepad or Microsoft  Excel. If the file is saved with a *.xls extension then the file will be loaded into Microsoft Excel by default.

Export: Depending on the selected entity the data may be exported in a format that can be then read into a commercial FEA environment such as Abaqus or Ansys. 

Depending on what section is right clicked some or all of the above options are disabled. These items are also disabled if the user does not have the appropriate license file installed. Demonstration mode greatly limits what right click functions are available.