LS-DYNA can be customized with ACT (Ansys Customization Toolkit). You can create interactions between user-defined extensions and the LS-DYNA system. You can create objects or features for custom preprocessing in the context of Ansys Mechanical. Custom postprocessing is not supported.

This section assumes some degree of familiarity with ACT. Other Ansys guides provide related information:

An example of how to set up custom preprocessing is described here.

The following is an example from an XML file that sets up Rigid Bodies and Flexible Bodies categories in the Data panel, each with a Geometry field. The resulting load and Details panel are shown.

<simdata context="Mechanical">
    <load name="Forming" version="1" caption="Forming Contact" icon="contact" issupport="false" isload="true" color="#0000FF">
      <attributes custom_dyna="Yes"/>
      <propertygroup name="Rigid Bodies"  caption="Rigid Bodies">
        <property name="Geometry" control="scoping">
          <attributes>
            <selection_filter>body</selection_filter>
          </attributes>
        </property>
      </propertygroup>

      <propertygroup name="Flexible Bodies"  caption="Flexible Bodies">
        <property name="Geometry" control="scoping">
          <attributes>
            <selection_filter>body</selection_filter>
          </attributes>
        </property>
      </propertygroup>	  
      <callbacks>
        <getcommands location="pre" >writeSnippet</getcommands>
      </callbacks>
      
    </load>
  </simdata>

To enable a custom load for LS-DYNA usage, define the attribute custom_dyna for the load, and set its value to yes. Additionally, if the load needs to write information to the solver input file, the callback getcommands must be implemented. The getcommands element specifies the name of the IronPython function called when Mechanical writes the solver input file.

<getcommands location = [string] order = [integer]>-->
[function(solver,solverdata,stream)]</getcommands>

The solverdata is a helper structure. It helps integrate user extensions with LS-DYNA, particularly when the solver commands generated by the extension add entities that have identifiers, like nodes, elements or components. Through the solverdata structure, ACT provides an efficient method to manage the newly created IDs of these entities with the existing IDs previously generated by LS-DYNA. It also enables reuse of internally implemented keywords like materials or elements.

The following table and sections describe the available solverdata methods.