General :: Any Good Tutorials Out There For Sed And Awk?

I plan to design a general framework for structural optimization.I already have a pre-processor module that I can call in batch mode, a Finite Elements Solver, and a heuristic non gradient based optimizer that can process the outputs of the solver, so as to adjust some input variables in the pre-processing phase ( geometry and topological definitions of my structure ).

I would like to parse the huge ammout of data that is released by the solver ( an ascii text file) to filter out some reauired results in some specific points ( maximum allowable deflections or stresses within my structure ) since it is this infoemation that will be fed to the optimizer engine so as to feedback on the quality of the changes made in the topological definition.The only way to do this in batch mode is with awk, or with sed..