© 2008 by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia.

The information contained on the University of Virginia’s Department of Information Technology and Communication (ITC) website is provided as a public service with the understanding that ITC makes no representations or warranties, either expressed or implied, concerning the accuracy, completeness, reliability or suitability of the information, including warrantees of title, non-infringement of copyright or patent rights of others. These pages are expected to represent the University of Virginia community and the State of Virginia in a professional manner in accordance with the University of Virginia’s Computing Policies.

ITCWeb: ANSYS
Introduction

ANSYS is a general purpose finite element program for engineering analysis. It can solve a wide range of structural, electromagnetic and heat transfer problems, computing the values of displacements, forces, stresses, strains, temperatures and magnetic fields. Analysis types available are: static, eigenvalue buckling, mode frequency, harmonic response, linear/nonlinear transient dynamics, heat transfer, magnetics and substructures. Structural and heat transfer analysis may be in one, two or three dimensions.

ITC's installation is an educational version, so there is a limit on the size of the problem which may be solved, based upon the wavefront of the stiffness matrix for the problem.

ITC support for Ansys is very limited. Please see the "Other Resources" section for some information about getting started with Ansys. Users of the ITC Linux clusters should refer to the cluster tutorial for information about using Ansys on the ITC Linux systems.

Availability | Documentation | Other Resources

Availability

The current version of ANSYS is Version 11.0.

Availability on Windows

Availability on Unix

Availability on Windows

ANSYS can be accessed from computers located in the ITC labs and in a number of computer labs belonging to SEAS. In addition, distribution is available for local installation on computers running Windows 2000/XP. The computer must be connected to the UVa network, either by being located on-Grounds or by use of the UVa Anywhere VPN client. An executable may be downloaded from the Licensing Database at the time the user registers for the program. For those with slow network connections, CDs are available from the Research Computing Support Center in Wilson 244.

Installation instructions for Windows are online at http://www.itc.virginia.edu/research/ansys/win_install.html.

If the software is being installed on Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2), it may be necessary to unblock the program in the Windows Firewall when the popup dialogs appear. Please note that versions earlier than 8.0 apparently do not function with SP2.

Availability on Unix

ANSYS is also installed on all ITC-supported Unix platforms including AIX. Ansys is also installed for Solaris (orange cluster), Irix (teal cluster), and Linux (ITC Linux Clusters). On-Grounds users are urged to mount to the appropriate common tree on jeeves.itc for use on non-ITC Unix-based computers. Since there are some flags that everyone running ANSYS from Unix requires, ITC has installed a "wrapper" script that should be used to invoke the program. It resides in the directory /uva/bin, which all accounts on ITC computers have in their PATH by default. To check your path, enter the following command at the prompt: "echo $PATH".

To start the GUI/Xwindows version of Ansys, enter the following at a Unix command line:

xansys

To start the character-driven/command-line interface, enter the following on the command line:

ansys
Exit Ansys by entering EXIT on the Ansys command line.

To start the GUI (Xwindows) from within the command line interface, enter the following at the BEGIN: prompt:

/SHOW, x11 (or /SHOW, x11-mono for a monochrome monitor)
MENU, ON

Ansys is available for a wide range of CPU/OS combinations. For architectures not installed onto Jeeves by ITC, CDs are available by special request at the Research Computing Support Center. Specifically, these include 64-bit Opteron and 64-bit Intel EMT architectures, running 64-bit versions of Linux.

To use Ansys on ITC systems that are queue-controlled, specifically the Linux clusters, it will be necessary to use it in batch mode. Some information about that can be found in the "Other Resources" section below.

Documentation

ITC does not provide user support for ANSYS, but some information is provided below. Up-to-date documentation may be viewed by invoking the online help facility, as described below.

Documentation: On-line within the ANSYS program:
help
You can also read the documentation by running the help browser
/common/ansys/11.0/v110/ansys/bin/anshelp110
Other Resources

Ansys Homepage: www.ansys.com

Ansys Resource page: http://ansys.net. A collection of information, tips and tricks, and a useful links for Ansys users. A very good starting point for beginners.

Unofficial Ansys Howto: http://www.me.umn.edu/~langlais/UMN/ANSYS/ANSYS-HOWTO.html. This has some content that is specific to the computing systems used by the author of the page, so adjustments to the commands for running the code must be made for the UVa environment. Most of this page is generic information of wide applicability, however.