Introduction.

This is a description of CalculiX CrunchiX. If you have any problems using the program, this document should solve them. If not, send us an E-mail (dhondt@t-online.de). The next sections contain some useful information on how to use CalculiX in parallel, hints about units and golden rules you should always keep in mind before starting an analysis. Section five contains a simple example problems to wet your appetite. Section six is a theoretical section giving some background on the analysis types, elements, materials etc. Then, an overview is given of all the available keywords in alphabetical order, followed by detailed instructions on the format of the input deck. If CalculiX does not run because your input deck has problems, this is the section to look at. Then, there is a section on the user subroutines and a short overview of the program structure. The last section contains a description of the verification examples you should have obtained along with the code of the program. If you try to solve a new kind of problem you haven't dealt with in the past, check this section for examples. You can also use this section to check whether you installed CalculiX correctly (if you do so with the compare script and if you experience problems with some of the examples, please check the comments at the start of the corresponding input deck). Finally, the User's Manual ends with some references used while writing the code.

This manual is not a textbook on finite elements. Indeed, a working knowledge of the Finite Element Method is assumed. For people not familiar with the Finite Element Method, I recommend the book by Zienkiewicz and Taylor [74] for engineering oriented students and the publications by Hughes [30] and Dhondt [17] for mathematically minded readers.