Using PyMechanical from a standard installation#

The ansys-mechanical-core package requires either a local or remote instance of Mechanical to communicate with. This page describes how Mechanical is installed from the Ansys standard installer and describes how you launch and interface with Mechanical from Python.

Install Mechanical#

Mechanical is installed by default from the Ansys standard installer. When you run the standard installer, look under the Structural Mechanics heading to verify that the Mechanical Products checkbox is selected. Although options in the standard installer might change, this image provides a reference:

Launch Mechanical#

You can launch Mechanical locally or remotely.

Launch Mechanical locally#

When Mechanical is installed locally on your machine, you can use the launch_mechanical() method to launch and automatically connect to Mechanical. While this method provides the easiest and fastest way to launch Mechanical, it only works with a local Mechanical installation.

Launch Mechanical locally with:

>>> from ansys.mechanical.core import launch_mechanical
>>> mechanical = launch_mechanical()
>>> print(mechanical)

Ansys Mechanical [Ansys Mechanical Enterprise]
Product Version:231
Software build date:Wednesday, August 10, 2022 4:28:15 PM

Launch Mechanical remotely#

You can launch Mechanical remotely from the command line in gRPC mode and then manually connect to it.

On Windows

Assume that Mechanical is installed at C:/Program Files/ANSYS Inc/vXXX , where XXX is the three-digit format for the version. For example, the path for 2023 R1 is typically C:/Program Files/ANSYS Inc/v231.

Launch Mechanical remotely in a gRPC session with:

C:/Program Files/ANSYS Inc/v231/aisol/bin/winx64/.AnsysWBU.exe -DSApplet -AppModeMech -nosplash -notabctrl -grpc 10000

On Linux

Assume that Mechanical 2023 R1 is installed at /usr/ansys_inc.

Launch Mechanical remotely in a gRPC session with:

/usr/ansys_inc/v231/aisol/.workbench -dsapplet -AppModeMech -nosplash -notabctrl -grpc 10000

View server information#

As Mechanical starts in gRPC mode, you can see gRPC server information:

Starting the grpc server at port 10000
Started the grpc server at port 10000

If you want to configure the port that Mechanical listens on, when you launch Mechanical, use the -grpc argument. For example, on Linux, launch Mechanical 2023 R1 on port 10001 with:

C:/Program Files/ANSYS Inc/v231/aisol/bin/winx64/.AnsysWBU.exe -grpc 10001

Connect to a Mechanical gRPC session#

You can connect to a Mechanical gRPC session from the same host or from an external host.

Assume that Mechanical is running locally at the default IP address (127.0.0.1) on the default port (10000).

You would connect to it with:

>>> from ansys.mechanical.core import Mechanical
>>> mechanical = Mechanical()

Assume that a remote instance of Mechanical has been started in gRPC mode. To connect to the computer on your local area network that is running Mechanical, you can use either an IP address and port or hostname and port.

IP address and port

Assume that Mechanical is running remotely at IP address 192.168.0.1 on port 10000.

You would connect to it with:

>>> mechanical = Mechanical('192.168.0.1', port=10000)

Hostname and port

Assume that Mechanical is running remotely at hostname myremotemachine on port 10000.

You would connect to it with:

>>> mechanical = Mechanical('myremotemachine', port=10000)

Launching issues#

For any number of reasons, launching Mechanical can fail. Some approaches follow for debugging launch failures.

Manually set the location of the executable file#

If you have a non-standard installation of Mechanical, PyMechanical might not be able to find your installation. In this case, you should manually set the location of your Mechanical executable file as the first parameter for the launch_mechanical() method.

On Windows

>>> from ansys.mechanical.core import launch_mechanical
>>> exec_loc = 'C:/Program Files/ANSYS Inc/v231/aisol/bin/winx64/AnsysWBU.exe'
>>> mechanical = launch_mechanical(exec_loc)

On Linux

>>> from ansys.mechanical.core import launch_mechanical
>>> exec_loc = '/usr/ansys_inc/v231/aisol/.workbench'
>>> mechanical = launch_mechanical(exec_loc)

If when using the launch_mechanical() method, Mechanical still fails to launch or hangs while launching, pass the verbose_mechanical=True parameter. This prints the output of Mechanical in the Python console. You can then use this output to debug why Mechanical isn’t launching.

Note

On Windows, output is limited because of the way Mechanical launches.

Debug from the command line#

In some cases, debugging why Mechanical isn’t launching might require running the launch command from the command line. The following Windows and Linux code examples assume that you are launching Mechanical 2023 R1.

On Windows

Open a command prompt and run this command:

"C:/Program Files/ANSYS Inc/v231/aiso/bin/winx64/AnsysWBU.exe -DSApplet -AppModeMech -nosplash -notabctrl -grpc 10000"

Note

PowerShell users can run the preceding command without including the opening and closing quotation marks.

On Linux

/usr/ansys_inc/v231/aisol/.workbench -DSApplet -AppModeMech -nosplash -notabctrl -grpc 10000

If the preceding command for your operating system doesn’t launch Mechanical, you might have a variety of issues, including:

License server setup

Running behind a VPN

Missing dependencies

Licensing issues#

PADT has an Ansys product section. Posts about licensing are common.

If you are responsible for maintaining an Ansys license or have a personal installation of Ansys, you likely can access the Installation and Licensing section of the Ansys Help, where you can view or download the Ansys, Inc. Licensing Guide for comprehensive licensing information.

VPN issues#

Sometimes, Mechanical has issues starting when VPN software is running. For more information, see the Mechanical User’s Guide in the Mechanical Application section of the Ansys Help.