Ansys Workbench combines access to ANSYS applications with utilities that manage the product workflow.

Applications that can be accessed from Workbench include: Ansys DesignModeler (for geometry creation); Ansys Meshing (for mesh generation); Ansys Polyflow (for setting up and solving computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, where viscous and viscoelastic flows play an important role); and Ansys CFD-Post (for postprocessing the results). In Workbench, a project is composed of a group of systems. The project is driven by a schematic workflow that manages the connections between the systems. From the schematic, you can interact with workspaces that are native to Workbench, such as Design Exploration (parameters and design points), and you can launch applications that are data-integrated with Workbench (such as Polyflow). Data-integrated applications have separate interfaces, but their data is part of the Workbench project and is automatically saved and shared with other applications as needed. This makes the process of creating and running a CFD simulation more streamlined and efficient.

Workbench allows you to construct projects composed of multiple dependent systems that can be updated sequentially based on a workflow defined by the project schematic. For instance, you can construct a project using two connected Polyflow-based systems where the two systems share the same geometry and mesh; and the second system uses data from the first system as its initial solution data. When you have two systems connected in this way, you can modify the shared geometry once and then update the results for both systems with a single mouse click without having to open the Meshing application or Polyflow. Some examples of when this is useful include: performing a non-isothermal flow calculation starting from the solution obtained from an isothermal one; performing a transient calculation starting from the solution obtained from a steady-state analysis; and performing a blow molding simulation using the parison obtained from an extrusion calculation.

Additionally, Workbench allows you to copy systems in order to efficiently perform and compare multiple similar analyses. Workbench also provides parametric modeling capabilities in conjunction with optimization techniques, which can allow you to investigate the effects of input parameters on selected output parameters; however, it is recommended that you use Polyflow’s internal parameterization and optimization capabilities if possible, in order to minimize the computational expense. See the Polyflow User’s Guide for details.