9.17. Performance Diagnostics

The PERFORMANCE DIAGNOSTICS command block provides a mechanism by which diagnostic timer information can be output throughout an analysis. The performance (speed at which time stepping progresses, in this context) may vary throughout an analysis due to a variety of transient conditions. For example, periods of significant plasticity, element death, or contact may dominate the run time of an analysis later. Diagnostic timer output is always output at the end of an analysis, but provides only an overall view of where time is spent.

BEGIN PERFORMANCE DIAGNOSTICS
  AT TIME <real>time_in INCREMENT =
    <real>time_increment_dt
  AT STEP <integer>step_begin INCREMENT =
    <integer>step_increment
  OUTPUT FILE = <string>output_file_name
END [PERFORMANCE DIAGNOSTICS]

The PERFORMANCE DIAGNOSTICS command block provides period output using either the AT TIME or AT STEP commands, similar to results or history output. Timers information will be written to the log file by default. An optional OUTPUT FILE may be provided to re-direct the timer information to a separate user-specified log file, if desired, to minimize additional printing to the log file.