# NODAL_OUTPUT

Specifies nodal output parameters for solution variables.

AcuSolve Command

## Syntax

NODAL_OUTPUT {parameters}

## Qualifier

This command has no qualifier.

## Parameters

output_frequency or out_freq (integer) >=0 [=1000]
Time step frequency at which to output nodal solutions. If zero, this option is ignored.
output_time_interval or out_intv (real) >=0 [=0]
Time frequency at which to output nodal solutions. If zero, this option is ignored.
output_initial_condition (boolean) [=off]
Flag specifying whether or not to output the initial condition.
continuous_output (boolean) [=off]
Flag specifying whether or not to output nodal solutions every step, saving only the current and previous solution.
num_saved_states or save (integer) >=0 [=0]
Number of nodal solution files to keep. If zero, all are kept.

## Description

This command specifies the frequency at which the nodal solutions are written into a results database. For example,
NODAL_OUTPUT {
output_frequency     = 10
output_time_interval = 2.5
}

specifies that the nodal solutions are to be output at every 10 time steps, at every 2.5 units of run time and at the last time step.

Once the solution has been written to disk, it can be translated to other formats using the AcuTrans program and other post-processing modules; see the AcuSolve Programs Reference Manual for details.

If either output_frequency or output_time_interval is non-zero, the solution will be output at the end of the run. If both are zero, no data are written to disk.

Run times may not coincide with output_time_interval. In this case, at every time step which passes through a multiple of output_time_interval, the solution is output.

The initial conditions may be output as time step 0 by setting output_initial_condition to on. This nodal solution will not reflect any boundary conditions.

The num_saved_states parameter indicates the number of nodal solution files to save. Once the (num_saved_states + 1)th file is written, the first one is removed. When running in parallel, once all files are written (in parallel), then the old ones are removed (in parallel).

A convenient way to output nodal solutions continuously is to set continuous_output to on. This will output the solution every step but save the solution files for only the current and previous steps. It is equivalent to setting output_frequency=1 and num_saved_states=2.