You can run Mechanical APDL in interactive mode or in batch mode. In interactive mode (the default), you exchange information with the computer continuously. You can execute a command by selecting its menu path in the GUI or by typing it in directly. The program processes the command in real time. Interactive mode allows you to use the GUI, online help, and various tools to create the engineering model in the graphics window and modify it as you work through the analysis.

In batch mode, you submit a file of commands to the program. This command file may have been generated by a previous session, by another program, or by creating a command file with an editor. On some operating systems, you can run a batch job in the background while doing other work on the computer. Batch mode is useful when you do not need to interact with the program, such as during the solution phase of an analysis.

A batch-only license is available for running Mechanical APDL in batch mode without access to the GUI, to online help, or to other interactive features. For more information about the batch-only product, contact your sales representative.

Several options are available for starting and setting options. You can enter the program directly by issuing the ansys execution command at the command level, specifying options via arguments.

You can also use the Launcher to set options for a Mechanical APDL session.