Mechanical APDL Basic Analysis Guide - Ansys

20.4. Text Versus Binary Files
Depending on how files are used, the program writes them in text (ASCII) form or binary form. For example,
ERR and LOG files are text, while DB, EMAT, and RST files are binary. In general, files that you may need to
read (and edit) are written in text form, and all other files are written in binary form.
All binary files are external type files. External binary files are transportable between different computer
systems.
Below are some tips for using binary files:
• When transferring files via FTP (File Transfer Protocol), you must set the BINARY option before doing
the transfer.
• Most ANSYS binary files must have write permission to be used, even if the data is only being read from
the file. However, the database files (file.DB) and results files (file.RST, file.RTH, etc.) can be
read-only. When you save a read-only file.DB, the existing read-only file is saved to a file.DBB.
However, you cannot save the read-only file.DB a second time, because it will attempt to write over
the file.DBB, which ANSYS will not allow.
Warning
Binary files are not backward-compatible with previous releases of the ANSYS program. For example,
you cannot use binary files produced by ANSYS 13.0 with release ANSYS 5.7 or earlier.
Attempting to use binary files from later releases with an earlier release can cause serious operating
problems in ANSYS. For a list of the files that are upwardly compatible, see Table 20.2: Permanent
Files Written by the ANSYS Program (p. 300).
20.4.1. ANSYS Binary Files over NFS
You can access ANSYS binary files (for example, file.LN22, file.DB, file.RST) from NFS-mounted
disk partitions. However, this usage is discouraged because heavy network traffic may result. Also, network
traffic may cause NFS errors, which in turn can cause the ANSYS program to read or write an ANSYS binary
file incorrectly.
20.4.2. Files that ANSYS Writes
The following tables list the files that ANSYS writes.
Table 20.1 Temporary Files Written by the ANSYS Program
Identifier
ANO
BAT
DOn
DSCR
DSPxx
EROT
Text
Text
Text
Type
Binary
Binary
Binary
Contents
Graphics annotation commands [/ANNOT]
Input data copied from batch input file [/BATCH]
Do-loop commands for nesting level n
Scratch file (ANTYPE=2, Modal Analysis)
Scratch files for the distributed sparse solver
Rotated element matrices
Release 13.0 - © SAS IP, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
20.4.2. Files that ANSYS Writes
299