customization of ansys mechanical: act · • can be ‘loaded into’ ansys workbench • act to...

1 © 2014 ANSYS, Inc. June 20, 2014 ANSYS Confidential

Customization of ANSYS Mechanical: ACT


Why Customize?

Solution What if a ‘super user’ could encapsulate company-specific expertise, know-how, processes etc. and provide this to ‘everyday’ users for expanded simulation capabilities?

The knowledge and expertise of one or a few becomes accessible to all in the organization

Customer requirements are diverse…

But everyone gets the same “off the shelf” software


• Application Customization Toolkit (ACT) – Toolkit for Application level

customization

– Modify functionality and integrate 3rd party tools at the Application level

– Many projects can be completed in hours, not months

– Specialist programmer skills NOT required for ACT

ANSYS Customization Suite

• Framework Software Development Kit (SDK) – Provides a tool kit for Framework

level customization

– Full integration of 3rd party tools at the Framework level

– Several months effort common

– Specialist programmer skills required for SDK


• Encapsulate APDL macros – Allows seamless integration of legacy APDL-scripts enabling transition to

Mechanical application

• MAPDL exposure – Fill the gap between MAPDL solver capabilities and their exposure in

ANSYS Mechanical

• New pre-processing features – User-created custom loads and boundary conditions

• New post-processing features – User-created custom results objects

• In-house solver integration – Your tools or solver integrated into ANSYS Mechanical

Scope of ACT


ACT Development Module

Module used by ‘super users’ to develop extensions

• Add-on to the Workbench environment

• Based on the Python and XML programming languages

• Allows you to look at and modify things ‘under the hood’ of Mechanical

• Toolkit used to create ACT customizations or ‘extensions’

• Licensed ANSYS product

• Maintained and supported by ANSYS

ACT Extensions

Files given to users to access the enhanced functionality

• Resultant ACT customizations

• Often single binary file

• Can be ‘loaded into’ ANSYS Workbench

• Act to modify ANSYS Mechanical

• Outside of the ANSYS standard support model

• No license required – Beyond access to ANSYS Mechanical

ACT Components


Ability to migrate existing process automation from MAPDL to ANSYS Mechanical at ‘low cost’

APDL

! APDL_script_for_convection.inp ! Input parameters: esel,s,type,,10 cm,component,ELEM thickness = 0.005 film_coefficient = 200. temperature = 226.85 ! Treatment: /prep7 et,100,152 keyop,100,8,2. et,1001,131 keyo,1001,3,2 sectype,1001,shell secdata,thickness,10 secoff,mid cmsel,s,component emodif,all,type,1001 emodif,all,secnum,1001 type,100 esurf fini alls /solu esel,s,type,,100 nsle sf,all,conv,film_coefficient,temperature alls

APDL Script Workbench Mechanical

Encapsulate APDL Macros


Creating the GUI definition via XML file

<load name="Convection on Blade" version="1" caption="Convection on Blade" icon="Convection" issupport="false" isload="true" color="#FF0000"> <callbacks> <onsolve>Convection_Blade_Computation</onsolve> </callbacks> <details> <property name="Geometry" dataType="string" control="scoping"></property> <property name="Thickness" caption="Thickness" dataType="string" control="text"></property> <property name="Film Coefficient" caption="Film Coefficient" dataType="string" control="text"></property> <property name="Ambient Temperature" caption="Ambient Temperature" dataType="string" control="text"></property> </details> </load>

At Runtime, the required APDL commands are generated by the Python function


Python script:

# Get the scoped geometry: propGeo = result.GetDPropertyFromName("Geometry") refIds = propGeo.Value

# Get the related mesh and create the component: for refId in refIds: meshRegion = mesh.MeshRegion(refId) elementIds = meshRegion.Elements eid = aap.mesh.element[elementIds[0]].Id f.write("*get,ntyp,ELEM,"+eid.ToString()+",ATTR,TYPE\n") f.write("esel,s,type,,ntyp \n cm,component,ELEM")

# Get properties from the details view: propThick = load.GetDPropertyFromName("Thickness") thickness = propThick.Value propCoef = load.GetDPropertyFromName("Film Coefficient") film_coefficient = propCoef.Value propTemp = load.GetDPropertyFromName("Ambient Temperature") temperature = propTemp.Value # Insert the parameters for the APDL commands: f.write("thickness="+thickness.ToString()+"\n") f.write("film_coefficient="+film_coefficient.ToString()+"\n") f.write("temperature="+temperature.ToString()+"\n")

# Reuse the legacy APDL macros: f.write("/input,APDL_script_for_convection.inp\n")

APDL reuse

/prep7 et,100,152 keyop,100,8,2. et,1001,131 keyo,1001,3,2 sectype,1001,shell secdata,thickness,10 secoff,mid cmsel,s,component emodif,all,type,1001 emodif,all,secnum,1001 type,100 esurf fini alls /solu esel,s,type,,100 nsle sf,all,conv,film_coefficient,temperature alls

Generating the APDL commands via Python


ACT exposes existing MAPDL acoustics features in Mechanical without any command objects • Defines acoustics elements

• Adds specific acoustic material properties

• Applies acoustic boundary conditions

• Unit consistent, no ‘commands objects’

Example of MAPDL Exposure

Under water


ACT can allow ANSYS Workbench to front-end your in-house solver

Example of External Solver Extension

• Small in-house verification tool

• Large-scale simulation code with weak or no user interface

• Use ACT to translate the problem setup in Mechanical into input for your in-house code

• Pre- and Post-processing

• Our powerful, easy-to-use and familiar environment, your solver


DesignXplorer (DX): – Workbench environment for parametric

studies and optimizations

– Native GUI, maintained by ANSYS

– One-click optimization setup, ease of use

– Limited set of optimization methods

Workbench Optimization environment


ACT for DesignXplorer – R15

Proprietary/External optimizer accessible in DX, as an additional optimization method

Specific settings of the proprietary optimizers presented as for any other standard DX method

External Optimizer hosted in DX


Example: MATLAB optimizers in DX


ACT for DesignModeler

• Companies often need to model a ‘family’ of geometries

• They may need to accelerate and automate the creation of these geometries/parts which are generic for them

Library of “standard” Ships’ stiffeners Automatic creation of geometries


Example: BGA-Geometry Creation in DM

• BGA Packages are surface mounted packages for Integrated circuits

• Modeling BGA Package requires various inputs like number of balls, pitch, TSV info etc..

• Modeling BGA Package is tedious – Lot of variations in Input data

– Designers who understand only Electronics language and not familiar with CAD package cannot manage easily

– ACT extension is created to model BGA package with all desired inputs

• ACT extension reduces modeling time and increases productivity enhancement

BGA Extension in DM

BGA Object in Tree view


BGA Wizard Workflow in Workbench

Click BGA Extension in DM BGA Object Gets Created in Tree

Fill Details View

Generate Package

TSV Structures


• Key point: Usability – User skill required for effectively developing extensions with ACT is

somewhere between an application engineer and a programmer

– No need for additional software or a compiler

• Documentation and training material is available

• ACT customizations have the same behavior as standard ANSYS Workbench Mechanical features

• Extensions developed with ACT will remain forward compatible with future versions of ANSYS

• ACT is ANSYS’ long-term customization tool

Ready For Your Use


ACT Extension Library

Great place to get started • Extensions made available in either binary

format (.wbex file) or binary plus scripted format (Python and XML files)

• Scripted extensions are great examples

• Links to ACT documentation and training

• Goals for an ACT developers forum

ANSYS Customer Portal • support.ansys.com

• A library of helpful ACT extensions available to any ANSYS customer

• Dozens available

• More being added continually


Many New and Updated Extensions


• Extension gives access to User Programmable Features natively in the Workbench Environment

– Previously only available in Classic environment

– Extension handles compiling and linking to the ANSYS MAPDL solver (a traditionally difficult process)

• UPF provides powerful options

– Customize the ANSYS program to your needs User-defined material behavior Create your own element Define specialized failure criterion (for composites, etc.) Much more…

Example: UPF Now Available in Workbench


How Can I Learn and Use ACT?

• Newly available in the Extension Library – Useful templates for getting you started


New HTML Documentation

Available in the 15.0 section of the Extension Library


Questions?

customization of ansys mechanical: act · • can be ‘loaded into’ ansys workbench • act to...

Documents