ACT supports customization of Ansys products with a set of interfaces. The high-level member interfaces of the API expose the properties and methods that allow access to the underlying product data.

The extensions that are loaded by the Extension Manager are each configured and initialized to support Python scripting. For each extension, the global variable ExtAPI gives access to the property DataModel. This property returns the object IDataModel, which has properties that return all high-level interfaces available for customizations. The complete list of member interfaces is given in the Ansys ACT API Reference Guide.

Each Ansys product can leverage its own scripting language and define unique object API. ACT minimizes inconsistency and confusion introduced by product-specific syntax by providing its own Automation API. Automation objects and methods wrap underlying product API by re-exposing user-facing features in a clear and consistent syntax. Instead of piecemeal script statements for cross-product customization, you can program with one ACT language.

You typically engage automation-level objects when issuing commands inside the console or invoking ExtAPI.DataModel members. You can confirm automation API usage by executing a variable name in the console. If the returned string starts with Ansys.ACT.*.Automation., you are working with the automation API. ACT substitutes the appropriate product name in place of the asterisk (such as Ansys.ACT.WorkBench.Automation.).

Conversely, you typically encounter SimEntity-level objects as arguments to extension callbacks.