ACT, or Ansys Application Customization Toolkit, is a powerful programming system for customizing the Ansys Mechanical product in a Python programming environment with many tools for speeding the development of useful algorithms, specialized interfaces, replacing MAPDL, etc. But lets skip the programming for now and install a useful tool or two that can help us get some work done. Here is an example of how to install an existing ACT extension.
This is a pretty simple download and install process. Follow the below steps to ensure success. For this example, I will install the freely available CivilFEM ACT.
Note that this process is compatible with the versions in the red box below. If you have 2022R1 installed, you will likely also have to install an earlier version such as 2021R2 to make this work otherwise you are now a beta tester for the new version and may experience some errors if there is an incompatibility.
Once you have the ACT installer downloaded, extract the zip file and open workbench.
Click on extensions, Install Extension:
Then navigate to the install folder from the CivilFEM download:
Click on the *.wbex file to load it.
Click on Extensions, Manage Extensions and click the check box for CivilFEM ACT:
Click Close
Click on Extensions, ACT Start Page:
Click on Manage Extensions:
Turn on the CivilFEM ACT by clicking the box to turn it green. Then the Civil FEM tab menu will show up in Mechanical.
When you see the green highlighted ACT, your extension will now be available in Mechanical. In this case, you can see a new tab is now included in Mechanical with many new functions, enjoy.
About the Author
Follow on Linkedin More Content by Dan Dart
