Copy and Paste Tasks and Cases

Data explorer

Data can be copied and pasted from the Data Explorer, including the task and case information. The information is copied to the clipboard or pasted from the clipboard in GWA format. When copying an analysis task several GWA records are copied: the analysis task and the analysis case associated with the task. When pasting into the Data explorer the task information overwrites the task information that may exist in the model. The “Paste Special” option allows the data to be appended to or to overwrite the existing task data.

Task View

The Task View also allows copy and paste operations for task and case data. As with the Data explorer the information is copied to the clipboard or pasted from the clipboard in GWA format. The copy option in this case is for the currently selected task. The paste option in this case can paste more than one task at a time but pasted tasks and cases will always be appended and are subject to renumbering.

GWA records

At its simplest a task is defined by a task record (TASK keyword) and a set of analysis case records (ANAL keyword). So a simple static analysis might look like:

TASK → 1 → ULS → 0 → GSS → STATIC → …

ANAL → 1 → dead → 1 → L1

ANAL → 2 → imposed → 1 → L2

ANAL → 3 → dead+imposed → 1 → 1.4L1 + 1.6L2

For the case of simple static or modal analysis the TASK record can be omitted and a default GSS static analysis task is assumed. The stage number (if required) is then appended to the record.

So a static analysis might be:

ANAL → 1 → dead → 1 → L1 → 0

ANAL → 2 → imposed → 1 → L2 → 0

ANAL → 3 → dead+imposed → 1 → 1.4L1 + 1.6L2 → 0

… or a modal analysis:

ANAL → 1 → mode 1 → 1 → M1 → 0

ANAL → 2 → mode 2 → 1 → M2 → 0

ANAL → 3 → mode 3 → 1 → M3 → 0

In the situation of a paste that appends the data, GSA will reorder the tasks and cases to avoid conflict with existing tasks and cases. For multiple tasks this can mean reordering within the set of the cases being pasted.