README

PREREQUISITES:

    -  A fortran compiler, gfortran will do. On Linux, Windows (mingw) and
       on Android using CCTools.
    
    -  GNU make.


HOW TO USE:

    1. Run make.
    
    2. Avoid the "-" character, it will break nastran.
    
    3. Place your problem file in the "test" directory. You'll finde 
       some in the "inp" directory.
    
    4. Run from there ..\bin\nastran.sh xxx or on windows  ..\bin\nastran.bat xxx
       where xxx is your problem file (without the file extension). For
       Android have a look at the android.sh script. For Android you have
       to link the program statically, otherwise it will segfault.


ISSUES:

    -  This is really old stuff, unmaintained for over 20 years. Expect
       something will break.
    
    -  There are some features missing in comparision to the commercial
       Nastran versions. Some entities have different names.
       E.g.:  RBE3 <=> CRBE3
             CHEXA <=> CIHEX1
    
    -  The CQUAD4 and especially the CIHEX1 (the Cosmic CHEXA) suffers from
       shear locking. Two test cases are profided in the test directory. 
       This could be improved by implementing selective reduced integration
       as it is described in the Fourteenth NASTRAN Users' Colloquium
       (p. 28ff) and in: http://paginas.fe.up.pt/~rnatal/paper.pdf.
    
    -  There seems to be no corner stress output for the CQUAD4 element,
       whereas it is calculated within the SQUD42 subroutine.
    
    -  There are no optimization capabilities, exept the FSD method as
       shown in the NASTRAN DEMONSTRATION PROBLEM NO. D01-16-1A
    
    -  There is no predefined binary result output, as some users may be
       used to PARAM,POST. Nevertheless it is possible to write an op2 file
       via DMAP alters, which then can be read by common post-processing
       software. Basically insert 
       OUTPUT2  "DATABLOCK",,,,//C,N,0/C,N,11////C,N,*MSC* $
       after the OPF DMAP statement.