# A little introduction

**URL:** <https://calculix.discourse.group/t/a-little-introduction/485>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [March 14, 2021, 9:17am UTC](https://calculix.discourse.group/t/a-little-introduction/485 "2021-03-14T09:17:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![LukeR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@LukeR](https://calculix.discourse.group/u/LukeR)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 9:17am UTC](https://calculix.discourse.group/t/a-little-introduction/485/1 "2021-03-14T09:17:59Z")

</div>

Hi everyone I have been trying to get onto the forum for a while now but was not able to get my posts approved for some mysterious reason. I am trying again with a different email (thinking it might not like Gmail)

I have used Abaqus for many years but have gone independent and need a similar tool that isn’t so insanely expensive. Also Abaqus is really not as good as it should be given the cost.

Right now I am working with PrePoMax which is very nearly functional for simple problems but will explore the other interfaces if I need access to other features etc. I am impressed by the code given it is not the product of a big company and really appreciate all the people who have contributed to its development.

I have done some work with Salome and CodeAster but found the way of doing things (and the French) a bit of an adjustment, the input files for Calculix are obviously much closer to what I am used to seeing.

Before Covid anyway I was doing structural analysis consulting and hope to continue that using Calculix.

Luke (American, living in France and Norway)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![imirzov](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/calculix.discourse.group/imirzov/32/1304_2.png) [@imirzov](https://calculix.discourse.group/u/imirzov)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2021, 6:48am UTC](https://calculix.discourse.group/t/a-little-introduction/485/2 "2021-03-21T06:48:59Z")

</div>

Dear Luke,

Please, have a look on this tool - it could be useful for you:

> **[calculix/cae](https://github.com/calculix/cae/)**
>
> CAE is a software package mainly consisting of CalculiX GraphiX, CrunchiX and keyword editor. The last one - is a very simple, free and open source GUI/pre-processor for CalculiX. Program is based ...

It would be cool if you start using CAE and reporting issues regarding functionality of this tool.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ceanwang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4da419/32.png) [@ceanwang](https://calculix.discourse.group/u/ceanwang)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2021, 12:15am UTC](https://calculix.discourse.group/t/a-little-introduction/485/3 "2021-03-22T00:15:27Z")

</div>

I tried this.

I copied examples/default.inp into bin folder, then in Window 10’s DOS terminal under bin, use this command to run:  
ccx default.inp  
gives a error message saying cyggfortran-5.dll not found. And cyggomp-1.dll.