# Guide for Preparing Input Files¶

In PreVABS, a cross section is defined through two aspects: components and global configuration, as shown in Fig. 10. Components are built from geometry and materials The geometry aspect comprises definitions of base points and base lines. The material aspect includes material properties, lamina thicknesses, layup stacking sequences, etc. The global configuration contains the files included, transformation, meshing options, and analysis settings.

Figure 10 Cross section definition in PreVABS.

To create the cross section, at least four input files are needed. Definitions of the geometry, materials and layups are stored in three files separately. A top level cross section file stores the definitions of components and global configurations. In some cases, a separate file storing base points is needed (such as an airfoil). Except the base points file, which has a file extension .dat, all other files use an XML format.

A top level cross section file stores all information that will be discussed in the following sections. The input syntax for this main file is shown in Listing 7.

Listing 7 Input syntax for the cross section file.
 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8  ... ... ... ... ... ... 

Specification

• <cross_section>
• name
• format
• <include>
• <analysis>
• <general>
• <baselines>
• <layups>
• <component>
• <recover>