ANSYS Command File Programming Features

The following ANSYS command listing, shows some of the commonly used
programming features in the ANSYS command file language known as ADPL
(ANSYS Parametric Design Language). It illustrates:

entering parameters (variables)

prompting the user for parameters
performing calculations with paramaters; note that the syntax and functions
are similar to FORTRAN
control structures
o if - then - else - endif
o looping

This example file does not do anything really useful in itself besides generate
keypoints along a line, but it does illustrate some of the "programming features" of
the ANSYS command language.
!
/PREP7

! preprocessor phase

!
x1 = 5

! define some parameters

x2 = 10
*ask,ndivs,Enter number of divisions (default 5),5
!
! the above command prompts the user for input to be entered into the
! variable "ndivs"; if only is entered, a default of "5" is used
!
*IF,ndivs,GT,1,THEN

! if "ndivs" is greater than "1"

dx = (x2-x1)/ndivs
*DO,i,1,ndivs+1,1

! do i = 1, ndivs + 1 (in steps of one)

x = x1 + dx*(i-1)
k,i,x,0,0
*ENDDO
*ELSE
k,1,x1,0,0
k,2,x2,0,0
*ENDIF
!
/pnum,kp,1
kplot
klist,all,,,coord

! turn keypoint numbering on

! plot keypoints
! list all keypoints with coordinates