1. ANSYS Command File Creation and Execution http://www.mece.ualberta.ca/tutorials/ansys/CL/Create.html
ANSYS BASIC INTERMEDIATE ADVANCED POSTPROC. COMMAND PRINTABLE
UofA ANSYS Tutorial
UTILITIES TUTORIALS TUTORIALS TUTORIALS TUTORIALS LINE FILES VERSION
Creating Files
Features
ANSYS Command File Creation and Execution
Basic Tutorials
Generating the Command File
Intermediate Tutorials
Advanced Tutorials
There are two choices to generate the command file:
PostProc Tutorials 1. Directly type in the commands into a text file from scratch. This assumes a good knowledge of the
ANSYS command language and the associated options.
Radiation
If you know what some of the commands and are unsure of others, execute the desired operation
from the GUI and then go to File -> List -> Log File. This will then open up a new window
Index showing the command line equivialent of all commands entered to this point. You may directly
cut and paste from here to a text editor, or if you'd like to save the whole file, see the next item in
this list.
Contributions
2. Setup and solve the problem as you normally would using the ANSYS graphic user interface
Comments
(GUI). Then before you are finished, enter the command File -> Save DB Log File This saves
MecE 563 the equivalent ANSYS commands that you entered in the GUI mode, to a text file. You can now
edit this file with a text editor to clean it up, delete errors from your GUI use and make changes as
Mechanical Engineering desired.
University of Alberta
Running the Command File
ANSYS Inc. To run the ANSYS command file,
save the ASCII text commands in a text file; e.g. frame.cmd
start up either the GUI or text mode of ANSYS
Copyright © 2001
University of Alberta GUI Command File Loading
To run this command file from the GUI, you would do the following:
From the File menu, select Read Input from.... Change to the appropriate directory where
the file (frame.cmd) is stored and select it.
Now ANSYS will execute the commands from that file. The output window shows the progress of
this procedure. Any errors and warnings will be listed in this window.
When it is complete, you may not have a full view of your structure in the graphic window. You
may need to select Plot -> Elements or Plot -> Lines or what have you.
Assuming that the analysis worked properly, you can now use the post-processor to view element
deflections, stress, etc.
If you want to fix some errors or make some changes to the command file, make those changes in
a separate window in a text editor. Save those changes to disk.
To rerun the command file, you should first of all clear the current model from ANSYS. Select
File -> Clear & Start New.
Then read in the file as before File -> Read Input from...
Command Line File Loading
Alternatively, you can also read in the command file right from the ANSYS command line. Assuming
that you started ANSYS using the commands...
/ansys52/bin/ansysu52
and then entered
/show,x11c
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2. ANSYS Command File Creation and Execution http://www.mece.ualberta.ca/tutorials/ansys/CL/Create.html
This has now started ANSYS in the text mode and has told it what graphic device to use (in this case an
X Windows, X11c, mode). At this point you could type in /menu,on, but you might not want to turn on
the full graphic mode if working on a slow machine or if you are executing the program remotely. Let's
assume that we don't turn the menu mode on...
If the command file is in the current directory for ANSYS, then from the ANSYS input window, type
/input,frame,cmd
and yes that is a comma (,) between frame and cmd. If ANSYS can not find the file in the current
directory, you may need to point it to the proper directory. If the file was in the directory, /myfiles
/ansys/frame for example, you would use the following syntax
/input,frame,cmd,/myfiles/ansys/frame
If you want to rerun a new or modified file, it is necessary to clear the current model in memory with
the command
/clear,start
This full procedure of loading in command files and clearing jobs and starting over again can be
completed as many times as desired.
ANSYS Command Groupings
ANSYS contains hundreds of commands for generating geometry, applying loads and constraints, setting
up different analysis types and post-processing. The following is only a brief summary of some of the
more common commands used for structural analysis.
Category Command Description Syntax
Basic
k keypoint definition k,kp#,xcoord,ycoord,zcoord
Geometry
l straight line creation l,kp1,kp2
circular arc line larc,kp1,kp2,kp3,rad
larc
(from keypoints) (kp3 defines plane)
circular line creation
circle see online help
(creates keypoints)
spline line through
spline spline,kp1,kp2, ... kp6
keypoints
area definition from
a a,kp1,kp2, ... kp18
keypoints
al area definition from lines a,l1,l2, ... l10
volume definition from
v v,kp1,kp2, ... kp8
keypoints
volume definition from
va va,a1,a2, ... a10
areas
create volume from area
vext see online help
extrusion
create volume by dragging
vdrag see online help
area along path
Solid
Modeling rectng rectangle creation rectng,x1,x2,y1,y2
(Primitives)
block block volume creation block,x1,x2,y1,y2,z1,z2
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3. ANSYS Command File Creation and Execution http://www.mece.ualberta.ca/tutorials/ansys/CL/Create.html
cylindrical volume
cylind cylind,rad1,rad2,z1,z2,theta1,theta2
creation
sphere spherical volume creation sphere,rad1,rad2,theta1,theta2
prism
various volume creation
cone see online help
commands
torus
Boolean adds separate areas to
aadd aadd,a1,a2, ... a9
Operations create single area
creates new areas by
glueing
aglue aglue,a1,a2, ... a9
(properties remain
separate)
creat new area by area
asba asba,a1,a2
substraction
create new area by area
aina aina,a1,a2, ... a9
intersection
vadd
vlgue
volume boolean operations see online help
vsbv
vinv
et,number,type
Elements &
et defines element type may define as many as required; current type
Meshing
is set by type
set current element type
type type,number
pointer
r,number,r1,r2, ... r6
define real constants for
r may define as many as required; current type
elements
is set by real
sets current real constant
real real,number
pointer
mp,label,number,c0,c1, ... c4
sets material properties for
mp may define as many as required; current type
elements
is set by mat
sets current material
mat mat,number
property pointer
sets size or number of esize,size,ndivs
esize
divisions on lines use either size or ndivs
eshape controls element shape see online help
lmesh,line1,line2,inc
lmesh mesh line(s)
or lmesh,all
amesh,area1,area2,inc
amesh mesh area(s)
or amesh,all
vmesh,vol1,vol2,inc
vmesh mesh volume(s)
or vmesh,all
Sets & select a subset of
ksel see online help
Selection keypoints
nsel select a subset of nodes see online help
lsel select a subjset of lines see online help
asel select a subset of areas see online help
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4. ANSYS Command File Creation and Execution http://www.mece.ualberta.ca/tutorials/ansys/CL/Create.html
select nodes within
nsla see online help
selected area(s)
select everything
allsel allsel
i.e. reset selection
defines a DOF constraint dk,kp#,label,value
Constraints dk
on a keypoint labels: UX,UY,UZ,ROTX,ROTY,ROTZ,ALL
defines a DOF constraint d,node#,label,value
d
on a node labels: UX,UY,UZ,ROTX,ROTY,ROTZ,ALL
dl,line#,area#,label
defines (anti)symmetry
dl labels: SYMM (symmetry); ASYM
DOF constraints on a line
(antisymmetry)
fk,kp#,label,value
Loads fk defines a
labels: FX,FY,FZ,MX,MY,MZ
f,node#,label,value
f defines a force at a node
labels: FX,FY,FZ,MX,MY,MZ
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