About the Programmer's Reference
The Programmer's Reference provides information about the various programming interfaces available to customers. This manual assumes that you have at least a basic knowledge of programming (a working knowledge of FORTRAN would be very helpful). The two part manual includes:
- Part I - Guide to Interfacing with Mechanical APDL
This guide describes a group of utilities as well as a set of FORTRAN routines that you can use to directly access the ANSYS database. You can also use these capabilities to access data in any of the binary files that Mechanical APDL writes or uses.
- Part II - Guide to User-Programmable Features
Mechanical APDL provides a set of FORTRAN functions and routines that are available to extend or modify the program's capabilities. Using these routines requires relinking the Mechanical APDL program, resulting in a custom version of Mechanical APDL. The program provides an external commands capability which you can use to create shared libraries available to Mechanical APDL (either from ANSI standard C or FORTRAN). You can use this feature to add custom extensions to Mechanical APDL without the need to rebuild the Mechanical APDL executable.
In addition, you can find the Ansys Parametric Design Language Guide as part of the Mechanical APDL Help system. This guide was designed for Mechanical APDL users who have some programming skills and wish to leverage the power of the ANSYS Parametric Design Language (APDL) to increase the productivity. APDL is a scripting language that is very similar to FORTRAN. The guide describes how to define parameters (variables), how to create macro programs using APDL, how to use APDL for simple user interaction, how to encrypt an APDL macro, and how to debug an APDL macro.
Note: The Programmer's Reference is offered solely as an aid, and does not undergo the same rigorous verification as the Mechanical APDL product documentation set. Therefore, the Programmer's Reference is not considered to be part of the formal program specification as stated in your license agreement.