The Database Interface Routines form a system of subroutines which may be called from within an interface program written in Fortran Version 77. They will enable finite element data to be entered into the FEMVIEW database a single data set at a time, via a binary temporary file.

Data must still be entered into the FEMVIEW database in generally the same order as that defined for the character file which FEMGV reads. Thus these routines must be used in a specific logical order which is illustrated by the flow chart in Appendix 6, and explained in the following sections of this chapter. The calling sequence of the routines is controlled by a system of sequence checks which, if a routine is called out of sequence, will return an error code and display an error message.

It is only possible to enter data directly into the FEMVIEW database if the database resides on the same machine as the translation process. The Database Interface Routines may still be used when the database and translation process reside on different machines, but in this case the routines are instructed to write the data to a neutral character file instead of directly to the database. The neutral character file may then be transferred to the same machine as the database, and entered into the FEMVIEW database using the 'UTILITY READ VIEWDATA' command. A list of all the callable routines is given in Table 1 below.

Table 1