Customer Training Material

Lecture 3

ANSYS Parametric
Design Language - APDL

Introduction to ANSYS
Mechanical APDL

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Introduction to ANSYS Mechanical APDL

Background Customer Training Material

• MAPDL is a command driven program

– for tasks to be accomplished, the user provides information and
instructions to the program by executing commands

• Commands can be executed in one of two ways:

– Directly - by manually typing individual commands or by reading in a text
file containing one or more commands
– Indirectly - by way of Graphical User Interface (GUI) pull down menus
• all executed commands (both direct and GUI) are saved to a log file

• In this course, both techniques will be introduced

• This chapter will focus on an introduction to the ANSYS Parametric

Design Language here after referred to as simply “APDL”.

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary Release 13.0

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Introduction to ANSYS Mechanical APDL

Background Customer Training Material

• All analysis (regardless of the physics) involves the following steps:

– Building (or importing) a model and applying boundary conditions
• pre-processing
– Solving a system of equations
• solution
– Reviewing results
• post-processing

• There are three main processors (modules) within MAPDL to

accomplish these tasks
– /PREP7
– /SOLU
– /POST1

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Introduction to ANSYS Mechanical APDL

Types of Commands Customer Training Material

• APDL commands are simply instructions the user gives the program.

• APDL commands can be categorized into three main types

– Supply input data (geometry, material properties, loads & BCs..etc)

– Define specifications (element technology, solver type, etc..)

– Instruct the program to perform a particular action (solve, plot, list, etc…)

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Introduction to ANSYS Mechanical APDL

Types of Commands Customer Training Material

• APDL commands usually begin with a prescribed name followed by

alphanumeric data.
– For example “ET,ITYPE,Ename,…” as described in the documentation, may
be input as “ET,1,BEAM188” stating simply that element type number “1”
is defined as the “BEAM188” element.

• The command name and data items entered on a command line are
separated into consecutive fields.
– A field is assumed to be as wide as the number of characters specified.

– Fields are separated by commas. ITYPE and Ename referenced above are
examples of fields

– The uppercase argument name (ITYPE), as described in the

documentation, indicates that a numerical value is typically entered in that
field, whereas an upper-lower case data label (Ename) indicates that an
alphanumeric value is typically entered in that field.

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary Release 13.0

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Introduction to ANSYS Mechanical APDL

Types of Commands Customer Training Material

• To minimize data input requirements, most APDL commands operate

on a “default” principle.
– All fields do not need to be explicitly defined

– Unless otherwise stated, default specifications are used whenever a field is

blank

– Sometimes the default setting is zero, sometimes it is calculated internally.

– Each command has its own unique set of default specification settings.
• Refer to individual command documentation for details.

– For example, “ANTYPE” is a command used to specify the analysis type to

run in the Solution Processor. It is not necessary to execute this command
for performing a static structural analysis, because the default for this
command is understood to be “STATIC” if nothing is specified.

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Introduction to ANSYS Mechanical APDL

Types of Commands Customer Training Material

• Commands beginning with a slash(/) or a star(*) are usually used for

supplying general control instructions to the Program

– /PREP7, /SOLU, or /POST1 commands, for example, instruct the program

to enter one of the main modules (PREP, SOLU and POST).

– Print, display, and file manipulation are controlled with slash commands.

– Repeat DO looping; IF,THEN statements and macro controls are available

within the star command set.

• Many commands are limited to functions within a specific module

(e.g., /PREP7). However, most star and slash commands are global
and can be executed in any module

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Introduction to ANSYS Mechanical APDL

Documentation Customer Training Material

• MAPDL has thousands of commands available to users.

• All commands can be executed from the Command Line.
• Most (but not all) commands can be executed via the GUI
• All supported commands are fully documented in the “Commands Reference
Manual” (available on-line with the program installation).

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary Release 13.0

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Introduction to ANSYS Mechanical APDL

Documentation Customer Training Material

• MAPDL has thousands of commands available to users.

• All commands can be executed from the Command Line.
• Most (but not all) commands can be executed via the GUI
• All supported commands are fully documented in the “Commands Reference
Manual” (available on-line with the program installation).

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary Release 13.0

© 2011 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. L3-9 September 2011
Introduction to ANSYS Mechanical APDL

Workshop 3A – Introduction to MAPDL Customer Training Material

• Please refer to your Workshop Supplement for instructions on:

• W3A- Introduction to MAPDL

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary Release 13.0

© 2011 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. L3-10 September 2011