The program is organized into two basic levels:

The Begin level acts as a gateway into and out of the program. It is also used for certain global program controls such as changing the jobname, clearing (zeroing out) the database, and copying binary files. When you first enter the program, you are at the Begin level.

At the Processor level, several processors are available. Each processor is a set of functions that perform a specific analysis task. For example, the general preprocessor (PREP7) is where you build the model, the solution processor (SOLUTION) is where you apply loads and obtain the solution, and the general postprocessor (POST1) is where you evaluate the results of a solution. An additional postprocessor, POST26, enables you to evaluate solution results at specific points in the model as a function of time.