The Product & CAD Configuration Manager allows you to configure geometry interfaces for Mechanical APDL and Ansys Workbench. CAD configuration is typically handled during the product installation; however, if you chose to skip those steps, or if you make changes to your local CAD configuration between releases (for example, you install, move, or update your CAD package, or remove it entirely), you can use this utility.
Configuring Geometry Interfaces for the First Time
From Windows, right-click the .
From the Product & CAD Configuration Manager, click Configure Products & CAD.
From the product selection screen, verify that the Ansys Geometry Interfaces selection is enabled and click to continue the configuration.
You are asked to select one of the following two options:
Selecting the Automatically detect my CAD installation and configure it option and clicking Next determines if each CAD system is installed and configured on your computer. The installation detects the CAD installs and displays the geometry interfaces that are configured. Click Next to continue the automatic configuration. If the CAD is installed but not configured, this option sets the configuration to appropriate associative interface. If the CAD is not installed, the configuration is set to reader. When the automatic configuration is complete, click Exit.
Selecting the I will manually make my selections option and clicking Next walks you through a several manual configuration steps. If you select this option, you can configure the appropriate geometry interface properties by following the steps described below.
After selecting the I will manually make my selections option and clicking Next (bullet point #2 above), you are presented with a check list of the geometry interfaces. You can manually choose which geometry interfaces you would like to configure by enabling the appropriate check box(es).
When you have selected the appropriate interfaces, click Next.
The next screen the provides you with the option of selecting the reader or associative interface for each enabled geometry interface.
Configure each geometry interface option and click Next.
If you selected the associative interface for Creo Parametric or NX, a third screen is displayed. In this case follow the instructions described in this step. If you did not select Creo Parametric or NX the installation continues as described in the step #8 below.
Creo Parametric
You may need to specify the Creo Parametric command, and the full Creo Parametric installation path (C:\Program Files\PTC\Creo 7.0.0.0\Parametric by default) for an existing Creo Parametric installation.
NX
If you choose the associative interface and the UGII environment variables were not set, you may need to specify the NX installation path for an existing NX installation. If you are an administrative user, a file required to load the NX plug-in is placed in the administrative user's Application Data folder by default, which may not be accessible by other, non-administrative users. To allow non-administrative users to run, you will need to define the environment variable UGII_CUSTOM_DIRECTORY_FILE prior to performing Product & CAD Configuration Manager functions and specify a location where other users have read access.
Once you have completed the Creo Parametric or NX configuration, click Next.
When all of your CAD products have been successfully configured, click .
Administrative users can review the log file produced by the most recent Product & CAD Configuration Manager in Ansys Inc\v242\CADConfigLogs\Latest\CADConfigurationMgr.log, while the non-admin user configuration record is stored in %TEMP%\Ansys\v242\CADConfigLogs\Latest. Historical configurations are maintained in the corresponding 242\<Date>\CADConfigurationMgr_<Time>.log. Any errors are recorded in CADConfigurationMgr.err located immediately in CADConfigLogs folder. For administrators a log capturing product uninstall is stored in %TEMP%\Ansys\v193\CADConfigLogs\UninstallFinalLog.
Important: If you change your source from reader to associative plug-in or vice-versa (Creo Parametric, NX, SOLIDWORKS, Autodesk Inventor, SolidEdge, AutoCAD or CATIA V5), you must first unconfigure the existing source and then configure using the new source.
If you need to unconfigure any of your CAD products, follow the steps above, but choose from the Product & CAD Configuration Manager.
You can configure Ansys Geometry Interfaces by supplying the CAD Configuration Manager with arguments specific to the CAD sources you want to make available. The following table contains a list of supported arguments.
The command to run the CAD Configuration Manager in batch mode on Windows is:
"<installpath>\commonfiles\CAD\bin\winx64\Ans.CadInt.CADConfigurationUtility.exe" -arguments
| Argument | Value | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| UNCONFIGURE_SPECIFIED | None | Results in any specified CAD sources being unconfigured. When this flag is absent, the CAD Configuration Manager will attempt to configure all designated CAD sources. |
| UNCONFIGURE | None | Results in all CAD sources being disabled along with prerequisite libraries. |
| Either: PE_CONFIG_WB or PE_CONFIG_WBSPATIAL | None | Specify Creo Parametric source as either the associative plug-in or the reader (Spatial, no Creo Parametric install required). When the plug-in is specified, additional arguments PROELOADPOINT and PROE_START_CMD are required. |
| PROELOADPOINT | Full path to Creo Parametric installation (quotes required on Windows). | Not required with unconfigure operation. |
| PROE_START_CMD | Full path to command used to launch Creo Parametric (quotes required on Windows) | Not required with unconfigure operation. |
| Either: UG_CONFIG_WB or UG_CONFIG_WBSPATIAL | None | Specify NX source as either the associative plug-in or the reader (Spatial, no NX install required). When the plug-in is specified, the argument UGII_BASE_DIR must also be specified. |
| UGII_BASE_DIR | Full path to NX installation | This should agree with environment variable UGII_BASE_DIR. Not required with unconfigure operation. |
| Either: CATIA5_READER or CATIA_CAPRI | None | Specify CATIA V5 source as either the Reader (Spatial, no CATIA install required) or CAPRI (CADNexus install required). |
| OSDM_CONFIG | None | Configure/unconfigure Creo Elements/Direct Modeling. |
| Either: INVENTOR_CONFIG or INVENTOR_CONFIG_WBSPATIAL | None | Specify Inventor source as either the associative plug-in or the reader (Spatial, no Inventor install required). |
| Either: SOLIDWORKS_CONFIG or SW_CONFIG_WBSPATIAL | None | Specify SOLIDWORKS source as either the associative plug-in or the reader (Spatial, no SOLIDWORKS install required). |
| Either: SOLIDEDGE_CONFIG or SOLIDEDGE_CONFIG_SPATIAL | None | Specify Solid Edge source as either the associative plug-in or the reader (Spatial, no Solid Edge install required). |
| Either: ACAD_CONFIG or ACAD_CONFIG_SPATIAL | None | Specify AutoCAD source as either the plug-in or the reader (Spatial, no AutoCAD install required). |
| JTOPEN_CONFIG | None | Configure/unconfigure JT. |
| CATIA4_CONFIG | None | Configure/unconfigure CATIA v4. |
| CATIA6_CONFIG | None | Configure/unconfigure CATIA v6. |
Note: All arguments require a dash (-) before them in order to be properly recognized by the CAD Configuration Manager. Arguments' values should not have a dash preceding them.
For example, you can configure Creo Parametric and SOLIDWORKS Geometry Interfaces to Ansys Workbench from the command line by using the following:
"<installpath>\commonfiles\CAD\bin\winx64\Ans.CadInt.CADConfigurationUtility.exe"
-SW_CONFIG -PE_CONFIG_WB -PROELOADPOINT "C:\Program Files\PTC\Creo 7.0.0.0\Parametric"
-PROE_START_CMD "C:\Program Files\PTC\Creo 2.0\Parametric\bin\parametric.bat"where installpath is the same as the value of
environment variable %AWP_ROOT242%,
platform is the value of environment variable
%ANSYS_SYSDIR%, and Creo Parametric is installed to
C:\Program Files\PTC\Creo 7.0.0.0\Parametric.
To unconfigure the same CAD Interfaces, the command would be:
"<installpath>\commonfiles\CAD\bin\winx64\Ans.CadInt.CADConfigurationUtility.exe"
-unconfigure_specified -SW_CONFIG -PE_CONFIG_WBAlthough the argument order does not matter, an argument value must immediately follow its argument.
When Workbench is installed to a network location (made available from a mapped network drive), any configuration actions will make the selected geometry interfaces available/unavailable only to the user who is currently logged in. To make changes that apply to all users, the configure/unconfigure action must be run as an administrator logged into the system hosting the Workbench installation. Configuration actions performed as an administrator on this server machine will impact all users on all machines referencing that install, except for users who have overridden the server configuration by configuring for themselves.
For loading associative geometry interfaces into their respective CAD environments, when the Workbench installation is referenced from a network location:
A local administrator’s configuration changes will set up associative CAD interfaces to load into the CAD environment of all local users, when that scope is selected (applicable to AutoCAD, Inventor, SOLIDWORKS, Solid Edge, Creo Elements/Direct and NX).
The associative geometry interface for Creo Parametric will load into the CAD environment of all users when the CAD installation is writable for that administrative user. Otherwise, it will load only into the CAD environment of the administrator who is currently logged in, and each additional user must be configured individually.
CAD Readers for JT, Creo Parametric, Inventor, NX, CATIAV5, CATIAV6, AutoCAD, Solid Edge and SOLIDWORKS may not fully unconfigure on a client of a network installation, even when this action is attempted by a client's administrator. An administrative user on the server must execute an unconfigure action, using Product & CAD Configuration Manager, in order for these interfaces to be fully deactivated on the client.
There is a limitation in the Product and CAD Configuration Manager which prevents you from configuring a different geometry interface type (other than the server specified type) on a network install's client system. To address this issue, run the CAD Configuration Manager on the client system and change the geometry interface to the desired type (Reader vs. Associative).