The best way to run OpenSees is to actually use the DOS terminal
application. Before you do we strongly advise that you set the PATH
variable to the location in which you place the OpenSees.exe. You can
place it anywhere on your system. c:\Program Files\OpenSees\bin is where
I place it.
To set the PATH Variable on Windows you follow the instructions
below:
Windows 8
Drag the Mouse pointer to the Right bottom corner of the screen
Click on the Search icon and type: Control Panel
Click on -> Control Panel -> System -> Advanced
Click on Environment Variables, under System Variables, find PATH,
and click on it.
In the Edit windows, modify PATH by adding the location of the class
to the value for PATH. If you do not have the item PATH, you may select
to add a new variable and add PATH as the name and the location of the
class as the value.
Close the window.
Open a DOS window, and type OpenSees. If it works you were
successfull.
Windows 7
Select Computer from the Start menu
Choose System Properties from the context menu
Click Advanced system settings > Advanced tab
Click on Environment Variables, under System Variables, find PATH,
and click on it.
In the Edit windows, modify PATH by adding the location of the class
to the value for PATH. If you do not have the item PATH, you may select
to add a new variable and add PATH as the name and the location of the
class as the value.
Open a DOS window, and type OpenSees. If it works you were
success
Windows XP
Start -> Control Panel -> System -> Advanced
Click on Environment Variables, under System Variables, find PATH,
and click on it.
In the Edit windows, modify PATH by adding the location of the class
to the value for PATH. If you do not have the item PATH, you may select
to add a new variable and add PATH as the name and the location of the
class as the value.
Close the window.
Open a DOS window, and type OpenSees. If it works you were
success
Windows Vista
Right click My Computer icon
Choose Properties from the context menu
Click Advanced tab (Advanced system settings link in Vista)
In the Edit windows, modify PATH by adding the location of the class
to the value for PATH. If you do not have the item PATH, you may select
to add a new variable and add PATH as the name and the location of the
class as the value.
Open a DOS window, and type OpenSees. If it works you were
success
Once the PATH variable has been set, you can run OpenSees from
whatever directory you are in in the Windows Terminal Application. So
start a DOS window.
Cmd.png
Then use the cd command in the window to move to the directory where
your tcl files are located.
Cd.png
There are then three ways that OpenSees/Tcl commands can be
executed:
<h2>Interactive</h2> Commands can be input directly at
the propt, as shown in the figure (Win32 version):
<h2>Execute Input File at OpenSees
prompt</h2> This method is the most-commonly used one. <br>
An external file containing the input commands can be generated a-priori
(inputFile.tcl) and be executed at the OpenSees prompt by using the Tcl
source command. The generation of the input script files is presented in
this chapter. <br> In the figure below, the user types the
following command at the OpenSees prompt:
source inputFile.tcl
The file execution is shown in the figure (Win32 version):
RunOpenSees2.gif
<h2>Batch Mode</h2> The previously-created input file
containing the Tcl script commands necessary to execute the analsis can
also be executed at the MS-DOS/Unix prompt, as shown in the figure
(Win32 version):
In the figure below, the user types the following command at the DOS
prompt: