Ansys EnSight Results Files

System Coupling writes EnSight-compatible output to the SyC/Results folder in its working directory. Postprocessing files are always generated at initialization. By default, the subsequent postprocessing files are generated at the same frequency as restart points, as defined by the OutputControl.Option setting (which itself defaults to generating a single restart point at the end of the coupling run).

Note:  EnSight output will not be created if all interfaces in the analysis contain sides without regions defined. However, results are written for the interface sides containing regions.

To customize how and when EnSight postprocessing files are generated, you can use the settings defined under OutputControl.Results.

The EnSight-formatted postprocessing files generated by System Coupling are described below:

EnSight Command file:

A single Results.enc EnSight Command file is written at for the coupled analysis. It contains all the data for the analysis — that is, it references all the relevant output files, including the case files for all processors used to execute the solution.

When loading coupling results either from System Coupling's GUI or CLI or when starting EnSight from the command line, Ansys recommends that you use the .enc file generated for the coupled analysis.

For more information on playing the EnSight Command file upon startup, see Loading EnSight Gold Results with EnSight Startup.

For more information on EnSight Command files, see Command Files in the Ansys EnSight User Manual.

Case files:

A Case file (*.case) in EnSight Gold format is written for each process that System Coupling spawns for the analysis. Each file contains only the data generated by the corresponding process.

When opening Gold-formatting coupling results in an existing instance of EnSight, Ansys recommends that you use the Case files generated for the coupled analysis. Ensure that you load all the Case files generated for the analysis so that the full set of results is available.

Note:  By default, System Coupling runs two processes on two compute nodes (that is, -s2). For more detailed information, see System Coupling Parallel Options in the System Coupling Settings and Commands Reference manual.

Case files are named according to the following conventions:

When a single System Coupling process is used:

  • The file is named Results.case.

  • This is the only instance where a single Case file contains all data for the analysis (and so could be used to load the full set of results into EnSight).

When multiple System Coupling processes are used:

  • Files are named according to the convention Results_<#>.case, where "#" is the index of the associated process.

  • Because System Coupling spawns two processes by default, it writes a results file for each one: Results_0.case and Results_1.case.

For more information on Case files, see EnSight Gold Case File Format in the Ansys EnSight User Manual.

Dynamic Visualization Store files:

When EnSight's live visualization capabilities are enabled, the Dynamic Visualization Store (DVS) writes a DVS-formatted file (*.dvs) which is used to export the co-simulation's results to EnSight.

Geometry data files:

Geometry data files have a .geo extension. Geometry results are written for each restart point and at the end of the run.

Named according to the convention Results_<######>.geo, where "######" is the six-digit coupling step index.

Variable data files:

Variable data files have a .dat extension. For each variable, coupling step results are written for each restart point and at the end of the run.

Named according to the convention Results_<V>_<######>.dat, where "V " is the variable transferred and "######" is the six-digit coupling step index.

Note:  To facilitate postprocessing, System Coupling provides a total-displacement variable which accumulates calculations for all incremental displacement variables defined for the Coupling Interface object. For analyses with one or more transfers of Incremental Displacement quantities, a single total-displacement variable will hold the accumulated totals of all incremental displacement variables.

Multi-step data files:
Filenames file:

EnSight's Filenames file is named Results.filenames. Individual file that tells EnSight how to complete the filenames.

This file has n lines, where "n" is the number of steps in the analysis. Each line in the file lists a step number.

Time file:

The Results.time file is an individual file that provides the time (in seconds) for transient runs.

This file is the same length as the *.filenames file, with n lines, where "n" is the number of steps in the analysis.

Units file:

The Results.xml file contains specifications for common units for physical variables.