Introduction to ACT

(Application Customization Toolkit)

1 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. December 3, 2012

 Goals of this Training
The scope of this training is to cover:
• Introductory training for Application Customization Toolkit (ACT) in Workbench
Mechanical

The scope doesn’t cover

• Scripting in the products
– Workbench (Python script at the schematic level), Mechanical (Jscript), MAPDL etc.
• Other customization possibilities
– Custom GUI on WB, Wizards on DM/Mechanical, Connection with External
Applications etc.
• ANSYS SDK (C# based Software Development Kit)

Training for these topics are available separately, on request

2 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. December 3, 2012

 Prerequisites
Software Required for Training
• Workbench R14.5
– Have ANSYS Customization Suite license to be able to develop ACT extensions
• Visual studio professional 2008 or 2010, for debugging
– This is “optional”. But having this can help a lot in debugging ACT extensions
– Free Express visual studio version is also compatible
• A decent text editor for writing Python programs. Example:
– IDLE (http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.3/python-2.7.3.msi)
– SharpDevelop (http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/Default.aspx)
– Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus-plus.org)
• Supports several languages (Python, JavaScript, XML, etc.)
• A decent text editor for writing XML programs. Example:
– Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus-plus.org)
• Supports several languages (Python, JavaScript, XML, etc.)
– XML Notepad 2007 (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=7973)

User should be comfortable with the following before attending this training
• APDL
• Python programming language
3 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. December 3, 2012
 Agenda Day 1
Title Duration Elapse time
01a-ACT Basics 1 hr 1 hr
01b-Introduction to XML and Python programming 30 min 1 hr 30 min
Break 15 min 1 hr 45 min
02-Introduction to IronPython Console extension 1 hr 2 hr 45 min
03-Walkthrough Workshop-1: Develop a custom load 1 hr 3 hr 15 min
extension (reuse APDL)
Lunch Break 1 hr 4 hr 45 min
04-Walkthrough Workshop-2: Develop a custom result 1 hr 30 min 6 hr 15 min
extension
• Via reuse of an APDL macro
• Via the Python APIs
05-Introduction to Some Advanced Topics 1 hr 7 hr 15 min

4 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. December 3, 2012

 Agenda Day 2
Title Duration Elapse time
06-Recap of day-1 30 min 30 min
07-Workshop-3: Develop a ACT custom result extension 1 hr 30 min 2 hr
(using Python APIs)
Break 15 min 2 hr 15 min
08-Workshop-4: Develop a ACT custom load extension 2h 4 hr 15 min
(reuse APDL)
Lunch Break 1 hr 5 hr 15 min
09-Discussion on attendees’ problems 2 hr 45 min 8 hr

5 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. December 3, 2012