Running the Analyses |
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Running the Analyses |
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Now that you have defined all the installation stages, stage parameters and installation criteria, you can run your analysis. When PipeLay runs an analysis, the GUI performs the following actions:
1. Verifies the user input.
2. Generates a finite element model.
3. Passes the finite element model and the environmental data to the analysis engine to run the analysis.
4. Monitors the progress of the run.
Note that if your analysis was ran previously then the GUI, as a precursor to the above actions, could issue a prompt when you try starting it again. This prompt would ask you to confirm that it’s ok to overwrite the existing output by rerunning the analysis, thus preventing any accidental loss of important data. A separate article discusses this prompt in more detail.
Any errors or warnings that are generated when the input data is being verified or when the finite element model is being generated appear in the Status Area at the bottom of the PipeLay window. Messages showing the progress of the finite element model generation also appear here. When generation is complete, its success or failure is reported and assuming it is successful, the analysis will then be run.
Press the Run Analysis button 
on the Home Toolbar. Figure 39‑23 shows what you should expect to see in the status area. If there are any errors or warnings reported, check your data input and re-run the analysis. Remember that you can double-click on most errors in the Status Area to be brought directly to the component, and often the dialog, which is the cause of the error or warning being reported.
Status Area
While the analysis is running, note that the Run Analysis button is disabled, and the Stop Analysis button 
and the Stop Current Stage button 
have become enabled. If you need to, you can stop the whole analysis, or the stage that is currently being analysed, while a run is in progress. Note that analysis may not stop instantly after a button is pressed – rather the currently running analysis will terminate as soon as the next solution has been reached. This allows analyses to be stopped neatly (i.e. database outputs are generated), so that they may be available for subsequent postprocessing, even if the analysis has not run to completion.
Back to Running the Installation Overview
You can monitor the progress of the analysis as it runs by selecting the Progress tab. Any output generated by the analysis engine while the run is in progress is echoed here. Figure 39‑24 shows sample output from the Progress tab.
Progress Tab
In this example, there are 15 static analysis stages in total. When all stages are complete you can proceed to examining the results. This is described in 'Viewing the Results'.
Back to Running the Installation Overview