Create a plain text input file for using Composite Material Manager with Batch Mode.

The input file is a plain text file containing a series of keywords to specify the inputs. A keyword is any line which begins with an asterisk (). If a line begins with two asterisks (*) it is considered a comment and is ignored. The name of the keyword is the text following the asterisk and before a comma character or the end of the line (whichever comes first). An example keyword, with the name STRENGTHS, is shown below:

*STRENGTHS

A keyword contains parameters and data. Parameters exist on the same line as the keyword and are separated by commas. A parameter consists of a name and a value, separated by an equals sign. Some parameters are required and others can be omitted. An example keyword with two parameters is shown below:

*ENVIRONMENT, TEMPERATURE=562, MOISTURE=AMBIENT

The keyword data is all of the non-comment lines following a keyword line up until the next keyword. Data is separated by commas. The following is an example keyword with data:

*STRENGTHS
1.0E+9, 6.0E+8, 4.7E+7, 1.0E+8, 8.0E+7, 4.3E+7

In general, the order of the keywords is of no consequence unless a keyword is declared to have children keywords. In that case all children of a keyword must follow the parent. The existence of a non-child keyword ends the definition of the previously defined parent keyword. For example the following is valid:

*A
*A_CHILD_1
*A_CHILD_2
*B

And the following would result in an error because the existence of *B ends the definition of *A and *A_CHILD_2 does not have a valid parent keyword which is required.

*A
*A_CHILD_1
*B
*A_CHILD_2