You can customize the Mechanical APDL program using a set of coded (ASCII) files. Each file has the extension .ans. Examples are the start-up file, start.ans (discussed in Running the Mechanical APDL Program of this manual and in the Basic Analysis Guide), and the configuration file, config.ans.

The program uses the following search paths to find the .ans files:

These paths let you customize Mechanical APDL at either the site level or the user level.

Note to Windows Users

Windows systems may not set a home directory by default. To set a home directory in Windows, you need to set a HOMEDRIVE environment variable to the desired drive letter (including the colon) and a HOMEPATH environment variable to the desired path. For example:

HOMEDRIVE=C:
HOMEPATH=\Users\Mine

For more information on setting environment variables, contact your system administrator or consult your Windows operating system documentation.