Initial setup and launch of MAPDL locally#

To run, ansys.mapdl.core must know the location of the MAPDL binary. Most of the time this can be automatically determined, but the location of MAPDL must be provided for non-standard installations. When running for the first time, ansys-mapdl-core requests the location of the MAPDL executable if it cannot automatically find it. You can test your installation of PyMAPDL and set it up by running the launch_mapdl() function:

from ansys.mapdl.core import launch_mapdl

mapdl = launch_mapdl()

Python automatically attempts to detect your MAPDL binary based on environmental variables. If it is unable to find a copy of MAPDL, you are prompted for the location of the MAPDL executable.

Here is a sample input for Linux:

Enter location of MAPDL executable: /usr/ansys_inc/v222/ansys/bin/ansys222

Here is a sample input for Windows:

Enter location of MAPDL executable: C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v222\ANSYS\bin\winx64\ansys222.exe

The settings file is stored locally, which means that you are not prompted to enter the path again. If you must change the default Ansys path (meaning change the default version of MAPDL), run the following:

from ansys.mapdl import core as pymapdl

new_path = "C:\\Program Files\\ANSYS Inc\\v212\\ANSYS\\bin\\winx64\\ansys222.exe"
pymapdl.change_default_ansys_path(new_path)

Also see the change_default_ansys_path() method and the find_ansys() method.

Additionally, it is possible to specify the executable using the keyword argument exec_file.

In Linux:

from ansys.mapdl.core import launch_mapdl

mapdl = launch_mapdl(exec_file="/usr/ansys_inc/v212/ansys/bin/ansys212")

In Windows:

from ansys.mapdl.core import launch_mapdl

mapdl = launch_mapdl(
    exec_file="C://Program Files//ANSYS Inc//v212//ANSYS//bin//winx64//ansys212.exe"
)

You could also specify a custom executable by adding the correspondent flag (-custom) to the additional_switches keyword argument:

from ansys.mapdl.core import launch_mapdl

custom_exec = "/usr/ansys_inc/v212/ansys/bin/ansys212t"
add_switch = f" -custom {custom_exec}"
mapdl = launch_mapdl(additional_switches=add_switch)