GGU-CONSOLIDATE: Starting the program

After starting the program, you will see two menus at the top of the window:

• File

• Info

By going to the "File" menu, a previously analysed system can be loaded by means of the "Load" menu item, or a new one created using "New". The program allows simple input procedures by moving directly to a dialog box after "New" is clicked; this can also be reached by pointing to the "File/new" menu item or "Edit/Type of consolidation" menu item. You can now directly select the analysis method and the units of time and constrained modulus to be adopted. After confirming your inputs, you then see six menus at the top of the window:

• File

• Edit

• System

• Output preferences

• Graphics preferences

• Info

After clicking one of these menus, the so-called menu items roll down, allowing you access to all program functions.

The program works on the principle of What you see is what you get. This means that the screen presentation represents, overall, what you will see on your printer. In the last consequence, this would mean that the screen presentation would have to be refreshed after every alteration you make. For reasons of efficiency and as this can take several seconds for complex screen contents, the screen is not refreshed after every alteration.

If you would like to refresh the screen contents, press either [F2] or [Esc]. The [Esc] key also resets the screen display to your current image zoom, which is usually preset to 1.0, which corresponds to an A3 or A4 sheet in most GGU programs (see menu item "Graphics preferences/Refresh and zoom").