ANSYS Command File Creation and Execution

UofA ANSYS Tutorial

Creating Files
Features
Basic Tutorials

ANSYS
UTILITIES

http://www.mece.ualberta.ca/tutorials/ansys/CL/Create.html

BASIC
TUTORIALS

INTERMEDIATE
TUTORIALS

ADVANCED
TUTORIALS

POSTPROC.
TUTORIALS

COMMAND
LINE FILES

PRINTABLE
VERSION

ANSYS Command File Creation and Execution

Generating the Command File

Intermediate Tutorials
Advanced Tutorials
PostProc Tutorials
Radiation

Index

Contributions
Comments
MecE 563
Mechanical Engineering
University of Alberta

There are two choices to generate the command file:

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.
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
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.
2. Setup and solve the problem as you normally would using the ANSYS graphic user interface
(GUI). Then before you are finished, enter the command File -> Save DB Log File This saves
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 desired.

Running the Command File

ANSYS Inc.

To run the ANSYS command file,

Copyright 2001
University of Alberta

save the ASCII text commands in a text file; e.g. frame.cmd

start up either the GUI or text mode of ANSYS

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

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/show,x11c

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
Basic
Geometry

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Command

Description

Syntax

keypoint definition

k,kp#,xcoord,ycoord,zcoord

straight line creation

l,kp1,kp2

larc

circular arc line

(from keypoints)

larc,kp1,kp2,kp3,rad
(kp3 defines plane)

circle

circular line creation

(creates keypoints)

see online help

spline

spline line through

keypoints

spline,kp1,kp2, ... kp6

area definition from

keypoints

a,kp1,kp2, ... kp18

al

area definition from lines

a,l1,l2, ... l10

volume definition from

keypoints

v,kp1,kp2, ... kp8

va

volume definition from

areas

va,a1,a2, ... a10

vext

create volume from area

extrusion

see online help

vdrag

create volume by dragging

see online help
area along path

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Solid
Modeling
(Primitives)

Boolean
Operations

Elements &
Meshing

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rectng

rectangle creation

rectng,x1,x2,y1,y2

block

block volume creation

block,x1,x2,y1,y2,z1,z2

cylind

cylindrical volume
creation

cylind,rad1,rad2,z1,z2,theta1,theta2

sphere

spherical volume creation

sphere,rad1,rad2,theta1,theta2

prism
cone
torus

various volume creation

commands

see online help

aadd

adds separate areas to

create single area

aadd,a1,a2, ... a9

aglue

creates new areas by

glueing
(properties remain
separate)

aglue,a1,a2, ... a9

asba

creat new area by area

substraction

asba,a1,a2

aina

create new area by area

intersection

aina,a1,a2, ... a9

vadd
vlgue
vsbv
vinv

volume boolean
operations

see online help

et

defines element type

et,number,type
may define as many as required; current type
is set by type

type

set current element type

pointer

type,number

define real constants for

elements

r,number,r1,r2, ... r6
may define as many as required; current type
is set by real

real

sets current real constant

pointer

real,number

mp

mp,label,number,c0,c1, ... c4
sets material properties for
may define as many as required; current type
elements
is set by mat

mat

sets current material

property pointer

mat,number

esize

sets size or number of

divisions on lines

esize,size,ndivs
use either size or ndivs

eshape

controls element shape

see online help

lmesh

mesh line(s)

lmesh,line1,line2,inc
or lmesh,all

amesh

mesh area(s)

amesh,area1,area2,inc
or amesh,all

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Sets &
Selection

Constraints

Loads

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vmesh

mesh volume(s)

vmesh,vol1,vol2,inc
or vmesh,all

ksel

select a subset of
keypoints

see online help

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

nsla

select nodes within

selected area(s)

see online help

allsel

select everything
i.e. reset selection

allsel

dk

defines a DOF constraint

on a keypoint

dk,kp#,label,value
labels:
UX,UY,UZ,ROTX,ROTY,ROTZ,ALL

defines a DOF constraint

on a node

d,node#,label,value
labels:
UX,UY,UZ,ROTX,ROTY,ROTZ,ALL

dl

defines (anti)symmetry
DOF constraints on a line

dl,line#,area#,label
labels: SYMM (symmetry); ASYM
(antisymmetry)

fk

defines a

fk,kp#,label,value
labels: FX,FY,FZ,MX,MY,MZ

defines a force at a node

f,node#,label,value
labels: FX,FY,FZ,MX,MY,MZ

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