The application of the SXF lattice description and the UAL software environment to the analysis of the LHC

A software environment for accelerator modeling has been developed which includes the UAL (Unified Accelerator Library), a collection of accelerator physics libraries with a Perl interface for scripting, and the SXF (Standard eX-change Format), a format for accelerator description which extends the MAD sequence by including deviations from design values. SXF interfaces have been written for several programs, including MAD9 and MAD8 via the doom database, Cosy, TevLat and UAL itself, which includes Teapot++. After an overview of the software we describe the application of the tools to the analysis of the LHC lattice stability, in the presence of alignment and coupling errors, and to the correction of the first turn and closed orbit in the machine.