This section is intended to give an overall understanding of the general format and function of the input data required for an analysis of a particular structure or structures and to outline which information usually remains constant and which information changes for each run of the program. The user should refer to the sections on Data Preparation contained in each of the Aqwa Program User Manuals for details of data input required for a particular type of analysis.

Note that in the following sections the term 'backing file' is used to describe a file which is read in by the program at one stage of the analysis having been output by the same or another program in the Aqwa suite from a previous run. This transference of data is essentially transparent to the user as it is only required to indicate whether the file exists, or not, for the program to read this file automatically.