*************************************************************

************* BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO ANSYS COMMANDS *************

The symbol '*' corresponds to the following:

* --> k, l, a, v, e, n, cm, et, mp, r where ==>
k --> Keypoints
l --> Lines
a --> Area
v --> Volumes
e --> Elements
n --> Nodes
cm --> component
et --> element type
mp --> material property
r --> real constant

$ --> d, f, sf, bf, ic, where ==>

d --> DOF constraint (ux... in Structural, Temp in thermal,
f --> Force Load ( Heat in thermal)
sf --> Surface load on nodes
bf --> Body Force on Nodes

More Commands can be generated by sensible combinations of " $* " family of

commands. See the following list of $* possible options

$* --> dk --> DOF constraints on KP (Vx,Vy,Pres... in CFD)

dl --> DOF constraints on Lines
da --> DOF constraints on Areas
fk --> Force on Keypoints
sfl --> Surface load on Lines
sfa --> Surface load on Areas
sfe --> Surface load on element faces
bfk --> Body Force on Keypoints
bfl --> Body Force on Lines
bfa --> Body Force on Area
bfv --> Body Force on Volumes
bfe --> Body Force on Elements
ic --> Initial Conditions

",p" --> If ",p" was issued at the end of the Command(in Input Window) the
GUI based picking menu will be activated. Useful for listing, plotting, meshing,
deleting, etc..
*************************************************************

1. Listing of picked Entities:

COMMAND SYNTAX: *LIS,p & $*LIS,p
A few Combinations of this command are:
klis,p --> List KP
llis,p --> Lists Lines
alis,p --> Lists Areas
vlis,p --> Lists Volumes
elis,p --> Lists Elements
nlis,p --> Lists Nodes
cmlis,p --> Lists components
cslis,p --> Lists user created local co-ordinate systems
dlis,p --> Lists DOF constraints specfied on nodes
dalis,p --> Lists DOF constraints applied on Areas
flis,p --> Lists force on Nodes
sfllis,p --> Lists Surface Load on lines
bfalis,p --> Lists body force load applied on Areas
iclis,p --> Lists Initial condition on Nodes

If ",p" was not issued, all entites currently selected will be listed.
For certain commands ",p" cannot be issued. See the below mentioned commands
etlis --> Lists the different element types defined
mplis --> Lists whatever Material properties
rlis --> Lists whatever real constants
cslis --> Lists all co-ordinate systems
cmlis --> Lists all components

*************************************************************

2. Plotting of Entities:
COMMAND SYNTAX: *plo
KPLO / LPLO / APLO / VPLO / EPLO / NPLO / CMPLO /
*************************************************************

3. deleting of Entities:
COMMAND SYNTAX: *DEL,p & $*DEL,p
KDEL,p / LDEL,p / ADEL,p / VDEL,p / EDEL,p / NDEL,p / CMDEL,p / DDEL,p /
DKDEL,p / DADEL,p / FDEL,p / SFDEL,p / SFEDEL,p / SFADEL,p / SFLDEL,p /
BFADEL,p / ......

The syntax for this command is very similar to LISTING command.

*************************************************************

4. distance between two entities:

COMMAND SYNTAX: *DIS,p
ndis,p --> Distance between two nodes
kdis,p --> Distance between two KPs
*************************************************************

5. Meshing of geometries:
COMMAND SYNTAX: *MES,p
KMES,p / LMES,p / AMES,p / VMES,p
*************************************************************

6. Size settings for Lines and Areas before meshing :

COMMAND SYNTAX : *size,,p
Lesiz,p / Aesize,p
*************************************************************

7. Clearing Meshes of already meshed geometries:

COMMAND SYNTAX: *CLE,p
KCLE,p / LCLE,p / ACLE,p / VCLE,p
*************************************************************

8. BOOLEAN Operations: Intersect

COMMAND SYNTAX : *IN*
AINA,p / VINV,p / LINL,p / AINV,p / LINV,p / LINA,p
*************************************************************

9. BOOLEAN Operations: GLUE

COMMAND SYNTAX : *GLUE
VGLUE,p / AGLUE,p / LGLUE,p
*************************************************************

10. Boolean Operations: SUBTRACT/DIVIDE:

COMMAND SYNTAX: *sb*,p
See the following examples to understand how this works:
asba,p --> Subtract Area from Area
asbl,p --> Divide Area by line
vsba,p --> Divide volume by Area
lsbw,p --> Divide line by Workplane
vsbw,p --> Divide volume by Workplane
asbw,p --> Divide area by Workplane
vsbv,p --> subtract Volume by another volume

More combinations exist. The user needs to explore them for themselves --> form
s
a part of learning
*************************************************************

11. Boolean Operations: Overlap:

COMMAND SYNTAX: *OVLAP,p
AOVLAP,p / VOVLAP,p
*************************************************************

12. Concatenation of Lines / Areas --> for map meshing

COMMAND SYNTAX : *ccat,p

LCCAT,p --> Concatenation of Lines for Map meshing Area

ACCAT,p --> Concatenation of Areas for Map meshing Volume
*************************************************************

13. Dragging operation

COMMAND SYNTAX : *drag,p
vdrag,p --> Drag areas along a line to create a new volume
adrag,p --> Drag line along a line to create a new area
ldrag,p --> Drag KP along a line to create a new line

*************************************************************

14. Copy Geomtric entities

COMMAND SYNTAX : *GEN,,p

KGEN,,p / LGEN,,p / AGEN,,p / VGEN,,p

Please note that *GEN commands are also used for MOVE operations. The differenc
e
lies in the value specified in the 10th field of these *GEN commands. By default
it is 0 --> which does the COPY operation. If specfied as 1 --> it does the MOV
E
operation
*************************************************************
15. Bottom -to- Top modeling commands:
COMMAND SYNTAX : *,p & **,p
k,p ---> Allows user to pick KP in the Workplane
l,p ---> Create lines from existing KP
ak,p ---> Create area from KP
al,p ---> Create area from lines
v,p ---> Create Volume from KP
va,p ---> Create Volume from Areas
e,p ---> Create Elem from existing nodes
en,p ---> Create Elem from nodes
*************************************************************

16. To apply common Boundary Conditions such as DOF constraint, Forces, Surface
Loads, Bodyforce Loads and Initial conditions
* --> is meant for the KLAVE entities only (KLAVEN stands for KP, Lines, Area,
Volumes & ELem )

16a. DOF constraint :

COMMAND SYNTAX : $*,p ( Please Note: NOT all * are valid)
See the valid combinations below:

D,p --> To apply DOF on nodes

DK,p --> To apply DOF on Keypoints
DL,p --> Apply DOF on Lines
DA,p --> Apply DOF on Areas ( symmetry or Anti-symmetry will be prompted)
****************
16b. FORCE Loading:
COMMAND SYNTAX : $*,p
See the valid combinations below:

f,p --> Forces on nodes

fk,p --> Force on Keypoints

(fa,p or FV,p or FL,p ----> Since force cannot be applied on Lines or Area &
volumes... this command does not exist.)
****************
16c. Surface Loads:
COMMAND SYNTAX : $*,p
See the valid combinations below:

sf,p --> Surface Load on a set of Nodes

sfl,p --> Surface Load on Lines
sfa,p --> Surface Load on Area
sfe,p --> Surface Load on Element

(SFk,p and SFV,p do not exist since pressure cannot be applied on a single Kp
and neither can it be applied on a volume)
****************
16d. BodyForce Load:
COMMAND SYNTAX : bf*,p
See the valid combinations below:

bf,p --> Bodyforce Load on a set of Nodes

bfk,p --> Bodyforce Load on KP
bfl,p --> Bodyforce Load on Lines
bfa,p --> Bodyforce Load on Areas
bfv,p --> Bodyforce Load on Volumes
bfe,p --> Bodyforce Load on Element
****************
16e. Initial conditions:
ic,p --> Initial Conditions on Nodes
(P.S: Initial Conditions can be applied only to nodes. )

*************************************************************

17. To refine a mesh :

COMMAND SYNTAX : *ref,p

kREF,p / kREF,p / aREF,p / eREF,p / nREF,p
*************************************************************

18. To TRANsfer loads from the Solid model to the FE model:

COMMAND SYNTAX : $TRAN
dtran / ftran / sftran / bftran & SBCTRAN

(SBCTRAN --> Transfers all solid model loads to FE model)

*************************************************************

19. Writing / Reading information to a file (ASCII)

COMMAND SYNTAX : *read,<filename> & *write,<filename>

NWRITE / MPWRITE / ETWRITE / RWRITE / EWRITE / CDWRITE

NREAD / MPREAD / ETREAD / RREAD / EREAD / CDREAD / LDREAD

(Some of these commands ETWRITE/ETREAD , RWRITE/RREAD are undocumented.

But
they do work) The Commands CDWRITE and CDREAD are used to write/read all FE
model related info (w or w/o geometry to ASCII files) Its recommended the user
read the online help on these two commands before using them

The LDREAD commands are used to read loads (LD) from other analysis types. For
example: Temp from Thermal results file (*.rth) are applied onto Structural
elements.