We often want to incorporate a finite-element solve into a larger program for design automation or optimization. The example below includes a Python function that runs an APDL script and then checks the output file for errors.

Several command line options for ANSYS are hard-coded into this script. To generate the appropriate options and paths for your machine,  set up your solve using the ANSYS launcher and then display the command that it would invoke from “Tools –> Display Command Line.”

I don’t show it here, but one can change the arguments to the APDL script by having the Python program edit either the body of the APDL script or its input files.

from subprocess import call
import datetime
import os


def runAPDL(ansyscall,numprocessors,workingdir,scriptFilename):
    """
    runs the APDL script: scriptFilename.inp
    located in the folder: workingdir
    using APDL executable invoked by: ansyscall
    using the number of processors in: numprocessors
    returns the number of Ansys errors encountered in the run
    """
    inputFile = os.path.join(workingdir,
                             scriptFilename+".inp")
    # make the output file be the input file plus timestamp
    outputFile = os.path.join(workingdir,
                              scriptFilename+
                              '{:%Y%m%d%H%M%S}'.format(datetime.datetime.now())+
                              ".out")
    # keep the standard ansys jobname
    jobname = "file"
    callString = ("\"{}\" -p ansys -dis -mpi INTELMPI"
              " -np {} -dir \"{}\" -j \"{}\" -s read"
              " -b -i \"{}\" -o \"{}\"").format(
                      ansyscall,
                      numprocessors,
                      workingdir,
                      jobname,
                      inputFile,
                      outputFile)
    print("invoking ansys with: ",callString)
    call(callString,shell=False)
    
    # check output file for errors
    print("checking for errors")
    numerrors = "undetermined"
    try:
        searchfile = open(outputFile, "r")
    except:
        print("could not open",outputFile)
    else:
        for line in searchfile:
            if "NUMBER OF ERROR" in line: 
                print(line)
                numerrors = int(line.split()[-1])
        searchfile.close()
    return(numerrors)


def main():
    ansyscall = "C:\\Program Files\\ANSYS Inc\\v180\\ansys\\bin\\winx64\\MAPDL.exe"
    numprocessors = 8
    workingdir = "G:\\scriptAnsDir"
    scriptFilename = "dymmyAnsysScript"
    nErr = runAPDL(ansyscall,
                   numprocessors,
                   workingdir,
                   scriptFilename)
    print ("number of Ansys errors: ",nErr)
            
        
if __name__ == '__main__':
     main()