Ansys customers can install EnSight through the Ansys unified installer, just as other Ansys products are installed. Select EnSight as one of the packages to include in the installation. If you choose this method, you will get an installation that includes the Ansys FlexLM license manager, and you can skip the rest of this document. Once EnSight is installed as part of the Ansys package, you will find the executable to launch it in the directory:
<Ansys_Installation>\v251\CEI\bin
However, it is possible to directly download the individual installer for EnSight from the Ansys customer support portal at https://support.ansys.com and do the installation yourself. In this scenario, it is also possible to startup and use the legacy, deprecated SLiM license manager yourself. The remainder of the document addresses this deprecated do-it-yourself approach.
Your downloaded installer will be named EnSight-Full-2020R1*, depending on your platform. The installer installs the EnSight application as well as several supporting applications. It installs EnSight 2025 R1 for post-processing solution data, the 3D viewer EnVision 2025 R1, EnVideo 2025 R1 for display of image files and playback of movies exported from EnSight, and EnVe 2025 R1 for video editing of movies exported from EnSight.
| Platform | Minimum Version |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Windows | Windows 7 |
| Macintosh | OS X 10.12 (Sierra) |
| Linux | Linux Kernel 2.6 |
A DirectX 10-capable graphics card from ATI or NVIDIA is required to gain the benefits of hardware-accelerated graphics in EnSight.
The following topics are included in this section:
The Windows installer file is named EnSight-Full-2021R1.exe. Once you download the file, double-click on it to start the installation process. You may need administrator privileges. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the installation. In the install wizard you can choose to disable some components that you may not need or change the installation location. The C:\Program Files (x86) directory is where 64-bit applications like EnSight are usually installed. Once the installer completes, you can double click the desktop icons to start our products.
Note:
See the licensing section further down this document for the deprecated, SLiM license manager.
To run any of the products, double-click on the icons on the Desktop or use the Start menu.
The installation can be done in silent mode from the command line. This opens no windows and is ideal for scripted or remote installations.
EnSight-Full-2025 R1.exe /S
For users who don't manage their system with EXE, Ansys also offers a 7-Zip (compressed archive) file. Installation by simple unzip does not perform system updates, such as file extension mapping nor installation of some system libraries so functionality can be affected. To install this package, change directory to where you would like to install the CEI tree and unpack the file. The created CEI directory will be your installation location.
7z x EnSight-Full-2021R1-win.7z
Alternatively, using the Windows File Explorer, move the 7-Zip file to where you would like the installation location to be and double-click it. Windows will unpack the file into an installation.
You may delete the 7-Zip file when installation is complete.
The following topics are included in this section:
Ansys distributes an Apple installer package inside a disk image, named EnSight-Full-2021R1.dmg. Double-click this file to open the image. In the new Finder window that opens, you will see the installer package. Double-click the installer to launch it. Follow the prompts to install the software. This installation on Apple requires administrator privileges.
Click the button to install into a different location.
You can install from the command line using the
installercommand. This option is ideal for scripted or remote installations. See theinstallerman page for more options.sudo installer -pkg EnSight-Full-2021R1.pkg -target /For licensing, see below:
Launch the applications from the Finder by double clicking the EnSight EnVision 2025 R1, EnVision EnVision 2025 R1, EnVideo EnVision 2025 R1, or EnVe EnVision 2025 R1 icons within the /Applications/ folder.
Or, to launch applications from the terminal, type any of the following
open /Applications/EnVision\ 2021R1.app
open /Applications/EnSight\ 2021R1.app
open /Applications/EnVe\ 2021R1.app
open /Applications/EnVideo\ 2021R1.app
To make it easier to run Ansys applications from the command
line using unix-style scripts (for example, ensight,
envision,envideo, enve), set your PATH
environment variable:
CSH
setenv PATH /Applications/CEI/bin:$PATH
SH
export PATH=/Applications/CEI/bin:$PATH
For users who don't manage their system with PKG, Ansys also offers a TGZ (gzipped tar) file. To install this package, launch a Terminal. Change directory to where you would like to install the CEI tree and untar the file. The created CEI directory will be your installation location.
tar xvzf
/path/to/EnSight-Full-2021R1-apple.tgz
Be sure to set your PATH environment variable to reflect
your installation location. For example, with a /usr/local/CEI
installation location, use the following commands for your shell:
CSH
setenv PATH /usr/local/CEI/bin:$PATH
SH
export PATH=/usr/local/CEI/bin:$PATH
The following topics are included in this section:
For Linux, Ansys packages software in two formats that work for most common distributions, which must have at least GLIBCXX_3.4.13. For RedHat-derived systems (including CentOS and Fedora), see RPM. For Debian-derived systems (including Ubuntu). For users who do not use the DEB or RPM packaging systems, a compressed tar file is also available to download; see TGZ.
For RPM-based Linux distributions like RedHat, CentOS, and Fedora, Ansys offers RPM packages for EnSight tools. You can use one of the many graphical package managers available for RPM system, or you can install these packages from the command line using the rpm tool. You must be root to do this install.
rpm -ivh
EnSight-Full-2021R1-0.x86_64.rpm
If some dependencies are missing, rpm will inform you
what additional packages need to be installed. Once the rpm command is
finished, you are ready to use the software. If you are a csh/tcsh
user, be sure to issue the rehash command to recognize the new software.
Start the products with any of the following commands: ensight,
envision, enve, envideo, etc.
The default install location is /usr/local/CEI/,
with launch scripts in /usr/local/bin/. You can install elsewhere by
specifying the --relocate flag to the rpm command. Check your
RPM documentation for more details. As an example, if you want to install into the
directory /apps/ instead of /usr/local/, use the
following command:
rpm -ivh --relocate /usr/local=/apps \
EnSight-Full-2021R1-0.x86_64.rpm
This creates /apps/CEI/, with the launch scripts in /apps/bin/.
See the licensing section below for details on our deprecated, legacy SLiM licensing.
If you install to a location other than the default, you should
update your PATH environment variable:
CSH/TCSH
setenv PATH /full/path/to/CEI/bin:$PATH
SH/BASH/KSH/ZSH
export PATH=/full/path/to/CEI/bin:$PATH
For users who don't manage their system with RPM or DEB, Ansys also offers a TGZ (gzipped tar) file. To install this package, change directory to the where you would like to install the CEI tree and untar the file. The created CEI directory will be your installation location.
tar xvzf
/path/to/EnSight-Full-2021R1-linux_2.6_64.tgz
Be sure to set your PATH environment variable to reflect
your installation location. For example, with a /usr/local/CEI
installation location, use the following commands for your shell:
CSH
setenv PATH /usr/local/CEI/bin:$PATH
SH
export PATH=/usr/local/CEI/bin:$PATH
The EnSight report generation system has a dependency on the libnss3
library being installed on the host platform. This library is not always installed on
CLE-based (Cray) systems by default. It may be provided by installing nss or mozilla-nss
packages on such platforms. The primary symptom of this issue is that EnSight is not able
to create a report.