Versions and interfaces#
The PyMAPDL project attempts to maintain compatibility with legacy versions of MAPDL while allowing for support of faster and better interfaces with the latest versions of MAPDL.
There are three interfaces PyMAPDL can use to connect to MAPDL. You can see a table with the MAPDL version and the supported interfaces in Table of supported versions
gRPC interface#
This is the default and preferred interface to connect to MAPDL. Ansys 2020 R1 and later support the latest gRPC interface, allowing for remote management of MAPDL with rapid streaming of mesh, results, and files from the MAPDL service.
Legacy interfaces#
CORBA interface#
Ansys 17.0 supports the legacy CORBA interface, enabled with the ansys.mapdl.corba module.
This interface allows you to send only text to and from the MAPDL service, relying on file IO for all other operations. While not as performant as gRPC, this interface still allows you to control a local instance of MAPDL. These versions of MAPDL support specific versions of Windows and Linux. For more information on supported platforms, see Ansys Platform Support.
The CORBA interface is likely to be phased out from MAPDL at some point. The gRPC interface is faster, more stable, and can run in both local and remote connection configurations.
Console interface#
PyMAPDL project supports Ansys versions as early as 13.0 on Linux using a console interface. Like CORBA, the console interface allows for the exchange of text to and from the Ansys instance.
Because console-specific support is to be depreciated at some point, you should shift to a modern version of Ansys to continue to use PyMAPDL.
Compatibility between MAPDL and interfaces#
The following table shows the supported versions of Ansys and the recommended interface for each one of them in PyMAPDL.
Table of supported versions
Ansys Version |
Recommended interface |
Support |
||
---|---|---|---|---|
gRPC |
CORBA |
Console (Only Linux) |
||
Ansys 2023 R1 |
gRPC |
✔️ |
➖ |
➖ |
Ansys 2022 R2 |
gRPC |
✔️ |
➖ |
➖ |
Ansys 2022 R1 |
gRPC |
✔️ |
➖ |
➖ |
Ansys 2021 R2 |
gRPC |
✔️ |
✔️ |
➖ |
Ansys 2021 R1 |
gRPC |
✔️ |
✔️ |
➖ |
Ansys 2020 R2 |
CORBA |
❌ |
✔️ |
✔️ |
Ansys 2020 R1 |
CORBA |
❌ |
✔️ |
✔️ |
Ansys 2019 R3 |
CORBA |
❌ |
✔️ |
✔️ |
Ansys 2019 R2 |
CORBA |
❌ |
✔️ |
✔️ |
Ansys 2019 R1 |
CORBA |
❌ |
✔️ |
✔️ |
Ansys 19.2 |
CORBA |
❌ |
✔️ |
✔️ |
Ansys 19.1 |
CORBA |
❌ |
✔️ |
✔️ |
Ansys 19.0 |
CORBA |
❌ |
✔️ |
✔️ |
Ansys 18.2 |
CORBA |
❌ |
✔️ |
✔️ |
Ansys 18.1 |
CORBA |
❌ |
✔️ |
✔️ |
Ansys 18.0 |
CORBA |
❌ |
✔️ |
✔️ |
Ansys 17.2 |
CORBA |
❌ |
✔️ |
✔️ |
Ansys 17.1 |
CORBA |
❌ |
✔️ |
✔️ |
Ansys 17.0 |
CORBA |
❌ |
✔️ |
✔️ |
Ansys 16.2 |
Console |
❌ |
❌ |
✔️ |
Older up to Ansys 13.0 |
Console |
❌ |
❌ |
✔️ |
Where:
✔️ means that the interface is supported and recommended.
➖ means that the interface is supported, but not recommended. Their support might be dropped in the future.
❌ means that the interface is not supported.