Introduction

PyMechanical is part of the larger PyAnsys effort to facilitate the use of Ansys technologies directly from Python. Its primary package, ansys-mechanical-core, provides scripting of Ansys Mechanical through Python.

With PyMechanical, you can integrate the simulation capabilities of the Mechanical multiphysics solver directly into novel apps. The ansys-mechanical-core package presents a Python-friendly interface to drive the software that facilitates the use of Mechanical scripting commands.

With PyMechanical, you can accomplish tasks like these:

• Accelerate the preparation of your simulations.

• Combine the expressiveness of general-purpose Python code to control the flow in your input decks with methods that drive the solver.

• Explore proof-of-concept studies or capture knowledge using interactive Jupyter notebooks.

• Tap the solver as the physics engine in your next AI app.

Contributions to this open source library are welcome. For more information, see Contribute.

Mechanical scripting

You can already perform scripting of Mechanical with Python from inside Mechanical. PyMechanical leverages the same APIs as Mechanical but allows you to run your automation from outside Mechanical. For more information on using these APIs, see Mechanical scripting.

Background

PyMechanical contains two interfaces: a remote session and an embedded instance. For information on the application architecture of Mechanical and why there are two Python interfaces, see PyMechanical architecture.

Remote session

PyMechanical’s remote session is based on gRPC. Mechanical runs as a server, ready to respond to any clients.

PyMechanical provides a client to connect to a Mechanical server and make API calls to this server.

For information on using a remote session, see Remote sessions.

Embedded instance

PyMechanical’s embedded instance is based on Python.NET. Rather than starting a new process for Mechanical, a Mechanical object (which is implemented in .NET) is directly loaded into Python memory using Python.NET. From there, Mechanical’s entire data model is available for use from Python code.

For information on using an embedded instance, see Embedded instances.

Documentation and issues

Documentation for the latest stable release of PyMechanical is hosted at PyMechanical documentation.

In the upper right corner of the documentation’s title bar, there is an option for switching from viewing the documentation for the latest stable release to viewing the documentation for the development version or previously released versions.

You can also view or download the PyMechanical cheat sheet. This one-page reference provides syntax rules and commands for using PyMechanical.

On the PyMechanical Issues page, you can create issues to report bugs and request new features. On the PyMechanical Discussions page or the Discussions page on the Ansys Developer portal, you can post questions, share ideas, and get community feedback.

To reach the project support team, email pyansys.core@ansys.com.