\chapter{Summary and Conclusions}\label{c:conclude}

The \numbers\ program is a shell program which reads and stores data
from a finite element model described in the \exo\ database
format~\cite{EXODUS}. Within this shell program are several utility
routines which calculate information about the finite element model.
The utilities currently implemented in \numbers\ allow the analyst to
determine:
\begin{itemize}
\item the volume and coordinate limits of each of the materials in the model;
\item the mass properties of the model;
\item the minimum, maximum, and average element volumes for each material;
\item the volume and change in volume of a cavity;
\item the nodes or elements that are within a specified distance from a
user-defined point, line, or plane
\item an estimate of the explicit central-difference timestep for each
material;
\item the validity of contact surfaces or slidelines, that is, whether
two surfaces overlap at any point; and
\item the distance between two surfaces.
\end{itemize}

Since it is relatively easy to add a new utility to \numbers, its
capabilities should increase in the future.  Utilities that may be added
in the future include the calculation of element distortion parameters
which would be useful for validating automatically generated finite
element discretizations, determination of the surface area of side sets,
and additional verification of contact surfaces. Although \numbers\ does
not currently read any of the variables, except for the displacements,
from an \exo\ file, the code is structured such that this capability
could be easily added if needed.
