Areas

This example shows how to create basic geometry using area commands.

import numpy as np

from ansys.mapdl.core import launch_mapdl

# start MAPDL and enter the pre-processing routine
mapdl = launch_mapdl()
mapdl.clear()
mapdl.prep7()
print(mapdl)

Product:             Ansys Mechanical Enterprise Academic Student
MAPDL Version:       24.1
ansys.mapdl Version: 0.68.1

APDL Command: A

Create a simple triangle in the XY plane using three keypoints.

k0 = mapdl.k("", 0, 0, 0)
k1 = mapdl.k("", 1, 0, 0)
k2 = mapdl.k("", 0, 1, 0)
a0 = mapdl.a(k0, k1, k2)
mapdl.aplot(show_lines=True, line_width=5, show_bounds=True, cpos="xy")

APDL Command: AL

Create an area from four lines.

mapdl.clear()
mapdl.prep7()

k0 = mapdl.k("", 0, 0, 0)
k1 = mapdl.k("", 1, 0, 0)
k2 = mapdl.k("", 1, 1, 0)
k3 = mapdl.k("", 0, 1, 0)
l0 = mapdl.l(k0, k1)
l1 = mapdl.l(k1, k2)
l2 = mapdl.l(k2, k3)
l3 = mapdl.l(k3, k0)
anum = mapdl.al(l0, l1, l2, l3)
mapdl.aplot(show_lines=True, line_width=5, show_bounds=True, cpos="xy")

APDL Command: ADRAG

Generate areas by dragging a line pattern along a path.

Drag a circle between two keypoints to create an area

mapdl.clear()
mapdl.prep7()

k0 = mapdl.k("", 0, 0, 0)
k1 = mapdl.k("", 0, 0, 1)
carc = mapdl.circle(k0, 1, k1, arc=90)
l0 = mapdl.l(k0, k1)
mapdl.adrag(carc[0], nlp1=l0)
mapdl.aplot(show_lines=True, line_width=5, show_bounds=True, smooth_shading=True)

APDL Command: ASBA

Subtract a 0.5 x 0.5 rectangle from a 1 x 1 rectangle.

mapdl.clear()
mapdl.prep7()

anum0 = mapdl.blc4(0, 0, 1, 1)
anum1 = mapdl.blc4(0.25, 0.25, 0.5, 0.5)
aout = mapdl.asba(anum0, anum1)
mapdl.aplot(show_lines=True, line_width=5, show_bounds=True, cpos="xy")

Area IDs

Return an array of the area IDs

anum = mapdl.geometry.anum
anum

array([3], dtype=int32)

Area Geometry

Get the VTK Multiblock containing lines. This VTK mesh can be saved or plotted. For more information, see the PyVista documentation.

areas = mapdl.geometry.areas
areas

Information	Blocks
Multiblock Values N Blocks 1 X Bounds 0.000, 1.000 Y Bounds 0.000, 1.000 Z Bounds 0.000, 0.000	Index Name Type 0 area 3 UnstructuredGrid

Merged Area Geometry

You can also obtain the areas as pyvista.PolyData objects.

Note that this is a method. You can select the quality of the areas (mesh density) and whether you want a merged output or individual meshes.

area = mapdl.geometry.get_areas(quality=3)
area

# optionally save the area, or plot it
# area.save('mesh.vtk')
# area.plot()

Header	Data Arrays
PolyData Information N Cells 12 N Points 24 N Strips 0 X Bounds 0.000e+00, 1.000e+00 Y Bounds 0.000e+00, 1.000e+00 Z Bounds 0.000e+00, 0.000e+00 N Arrays 1	Name Field Type N Comp Min Max entity_num Cells int32 1 3.000e+00 3.000e+00

Area Selection

There are two approaches for selecting areas, the old “legacy” style and the new style. The old style is valuable for those who are comfortable with the existing MAPDL commands, and new style is useful for selecting areas in a pythonic manner.

This example generates a series of random squares and selects them

mapdl.clear()
mapdl.prep7()


def generate_random_area():
    start_x, start_y, height, width = np.random.random(4)
    mapdl.blc4(start_x * 10, start_y * 10, height, width)


# create 20 random rectangles
for i in range(20):
    generate_random_area()

# Print the area numbers
print(mapdl.geometry.anum)

[ 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20]

Select every other area with the old style command.

mapdl.asel("S", "AREA", "", 1, 20, 2)
print(mapdl.geometry.anum)

[ 1  3  5  7  9 11 13 15 17 19]

Select every other area with the new style command.

Note that the Area IDs are 1 based in MAPDL, while Python ranges are 0 based.

mapdl.geometry.area_select(range(1, 21, 2))
print(mapdl.geometry.anum)

[ 1  3  5  7  9 11 13 15 17 19]

Select areas from a list

Note that you can return_selected if you want to see what you have selected. This is helpful when reselecting from existing areas.

items = mapdl.geometry.area_select([1, 5, 10, 20], return_selected=True)
print(items)

[ 1  5 10 20]

APDL Command: APLOT

This method uses VTK and pyvista to generate a dynamic 3D plot.

There are a variety of plotting options available for all the common plotting methods. Here, we enable the bounds and show the lines of the plot while increasing the plot quality with the quality parameter.

Note that the cpos keyword argument can be used to describe the camera direction from the following:

• iso - Isometric view

• xy - XY Plane view

• xz - XZ Plane view

• yx - YX Plane view

• yz - YZ Plane view

• zx - ZX Plane view

• zy - ZY Plane view

mapdl.aplot(quality=1, show_bounds=True, cpos="iso", show_lines=True)

Stop mapdl

mapdl.exit()