* James Lockley <jpl@global.co.za>: <...> > i now want to go to the next step and get rid of the batch files... i need > to open a pipe to a command and then write the command arguments to it. <...> > (this in a dos window works fine: D:\Work\Current>c:\abaqus\5.8-14\abaqus.exe post) How about: import os os.system('c:\\abaqus\\5.8-14\\abaqus.exe post') David