How to use pre/post and batch solver licenses in ANSYS.

There is only one type of pre/post license so it doesn’t matter if it is a structural, thermal or electromechanical model that you are working with. You always use the same license and it will be allocated as long as your ANSYS model is opened. When it comes to the batch solver license, there are 3 different types. Multiphysics, Mechanical and Structural Solvers. Depending on which type of physic you want to solve you will have to choose the appropriate license. One big benefit with the Solver licenses is that they are only allocated during the solve process. This means that they are automatically released when the solution is done. This in turn makes them very well suited for use in queue systems like ANSYS Remote Solve Manager.

When using the pre/post and batch solver setup compared to using full licenses, some settings has to be done within ANSYS and maybe some changes in your working methodology. These settings and changes are described below both for ANSYS Workbench and ANSYS Mechanical APDL.

Pre/post and batch solver licenses in ANSYS Workbench

To handle batch jobs within Workbench, ANSYS has a program called ANSYS Remote Solver Manager. This program performs a local login on your computer and runs the job in background. For this the program need the user login information. That information has to be stored in the program, so the first thing the user has to do, is to open the Remote Solve Manager and there type in his/her domain password.

This process will have to be repeated every time the password is changed. The Remote Solve Manager is actually a queue handling system where you can define several compute servers and personal or common queues to which you can choose to send you jobs. But to be able to run in batch you will only have to set your password. The next step that has to be performed in order to run in batch mode, is to select which solver license to use. That is done under Solver Process Settings and License within the Workbench interface. Simply select the appropriate batch license for My Computer, Background.

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In this menu, My Computer Background shall also be set as default.

When the steps above are performed, it is only to open your model within ANSYS Workbench as usual and a pre/post license will be used. Then, when pressing the solve button, the job will start in background using a Structural Batch license. When the solution is done, green arrows will appear on your Solution menu. In order to see the results, right click Solution and select Get Results. Then the results will be read into the program and you can check and add more results as usual.

Pre/post and batch solver licenses in ANSYS Mechanical APDL

Basically you could say that there are two main ways of working with ANSYS Mechanical APDL. Working with input files or working with ANSYS databases. Regardless of which method you choose you will always have to use some kind of input file to start a batch run within ANSYS Mechanical APDL.

Workflow for the input file user:

Start the product launcher, select ANSYS and ANSYS Mechanical pre/post and then press run.

When ANSYS is opened you build you input file as usual and test run it all up to the solve command. When you are ready to start a run you will have to add a solve command to your input file and close it. Then you close ANSYS and go back to the Product Launcher. Now instead of selecting ANSYS and ANSYS Mechanical PrePost, you select ANSYS Batch and ANSYS Structural Solver.

You will also have to select a Working Directory, Job Name, point to your input file and select a name for you output file. When you press the Run button, ANSYS will read your input file and perform all commands in it, including the solve command. As soon as the solution is done, ANSYS will release the batch license and you can access the result file. To do that, you open ANSYS in the same way as when you built your model and read in the results. Now you can post process it in the same way as usual.

Workflow for the database file users:

The building phase, when using database file, is almost the same as when using an input file. You open the program in the same way with a pre/post license and build you model and add all details right up until you are ready to press the solve button. But instead of pressing solve, you will have to save you database and create an input file to start you job. The input file has to look something like the following example.

As you can see there are not many lines that are required in the start file. To run the file, you will have to use the same procedure as when working with input files which is described above. When you run the file, ANSYS simply resume the database, enter the solution processor and run the solution. The post processing procedure is also the same as described in the input file approach above.