Post-analysis, includes the activities that normally follow a Viewfactor analysis. These activities primarily involve interfacing to Patran Thermal for subsequent thermal network analysis. This chapter assumes that you have used Viewfactor to create Patran Thermal radiation resistors and now want to include them in a thermal analysis.

Viewfactor may also be used to calculate viewfactors only and not make Patran Thermal radiation resistors, or be used to take already existing viewfactor data and combine it with Patran Thermal template file data to produce radiation resistors. These different modes of operation are determined by the $RUN_CONTROL parameter.

For more information on these different modes of operation, see Description, 13, VFCTL, the Viewfactor Program Execution Control File, 85, Review Directory for Required Files, 98 and Changing the Surface Template Data After Viewfactors are Calculated (Ch. 7).