# Writing CalculiX Input file **URL:** \ **Category:** Uncategorized\ **Created:** [March 26, 2024, 7:54am UTC](https://calculix.discourse.group/t/writing-calculix-input-file/2175 "2024-03-26T07:54:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![thapelo861](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@thapelo861](https://calculix.discourse.group/u/thapelo861)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 7:54am UTC](https://calculix.discourse.group/t/writing-calculix-input-file/2175/1 "2024-03-26T07:54:11Z")
Good day CalculiX experienced users How to write an input file of the following structural for Finite Element Analysis. 1. Line beam assigning a cross sectional area. 2. 2D Plate with a hole from FreeCad. 3. 3D Beam from FreeCad 4. Lastly How to display the nodes or elements of the structural once the input has been created i.e ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/calculix/original/2X/5/581db077b5be4a72a23b78e5a52e2c3b4dfc3664.png) ---
**Author:** ![Calc\_em](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Calc\_em](https://calculix.discourse.group/u/Calc_em)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 8:02am UTC](https://calculix.discourse.group/t/writing-calculix-input-file/2175/2 "2024-03-26T08:02:25Z")
> [@thapelo861](#): > > - Line beam assigning a cross sectional area. > - 2D Plate with a hole from FreeCad. > - 3D Beam from FreeCad All of them can be prepared in FreeCAD FEM and then you can export the .inp file and see what it looks like. > [@thapelo861](#): > > Lastly How to display the nodes or elements of the structural once the input has been created i.e For that you have to pick a preprocessor, there are a few for CalculiX but they may not be able to display node and element labels. ParaView can do it once you import your results (converted from .frd to .vtk). ---
**Author:** ![thapelo861](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@thapelo861](https://calculix.discourse.group/u/thapelo861)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 8:20am UTC](https://calculix.discourse.group/t/writing-calculix-input-file/2175/3 "2024-03-26T08:20:03Z")
Thank You very much @Calc_em. This also answers my other question that was going to follow on how to select nodes that required to be constraint on the input file, following MPC method. ---
**Author:** ![NorbertH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/74df32/32.png) [@NorbertH](https://calculix.discourse.group/u/NorbertH)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 9:35am UTC](https://calculix.discourse.group/t/writing-calculix-input-file/2175/4 "2024-03-26T09:35:44Z")
@thapelo861 if you need to display nodes and element id’s you could also use [cubit](https://coreform.com/products/coreform-cubit/) and the [calculix component](https://github.com/calculix/Cubit-CalculiX). ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/calculix/original/2X/6/645dbd1486312b9221ca877ac62081f74e8f8b2a.png) ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/calculix/original/2X/4/4e8b2f179184850d3ad5c4ceae38207b30929087.png) ---
**Author:** ![xyont](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/calculix.discourse.group/xyont/32/3553_2.png) [@xyont](https://calculix.discourse.group/u/xyont)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 9:53am UTC](https://calculix.discourse.group/t/writing-calculix-input-file/2175/5 "2024-03-26T09:53:25Z")
it can display directly in CGX by reading of Inp files, display node with annotation ‘plot’ or ‘plus’ and ‘na all’ display element with annotation ‘plot’ or ‘plus’ and ‘ea all’ ![2024-03-26 16_51_01-CalculiX GraphiX](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/calculix/original/2X/0/0c007618ec22aae07cc056b94e1c39df6a3e69d4.png) ---
**Author:** ![thapelo861](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@thapelo861](https://calculix.discourse.group/u/thapelo861)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 4:06pm UTC](https://calculix.discourse.group/t/writing-calculix-input-file/2175/6 "2024-03-26T16:06:15Z")
![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/calculix/original/2X/1/105fdbb2ba7565df35b55e27f5ae3e63ee6f0b20.png) @xyont Thank you i was able to display the elements and nodes numbers in cgx One the Terminal has opened after running CGX post Processor Mode, one need to add plot na all, plus na all, plot ea all & plus ea all.