Introduction to ACT

(Application Customization Toolkit)

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 doesnt 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

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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
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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

extension (reuse APDL)

1 hr

3 hr 15 min

Lunch Break

1 hr

4 hr 45 min

04-Walkthrough Workshop-2: Develop a custom result

extension
Via reuse of an APDL macro
Via the Python APIs

1 hr 30 min

6 hr 15 min

05-Introduction to Some Advanced Topics

1 hr

7 hr 15 min

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

(using Python APIs)

1 hr 30 min

2 hr

Break

15 min

2 hr 15 min

08-Workshop-4: Develop a ACT custom load extension

(reuse APDL)

2h

4 hr 15 min

Lunch Break

1 hr

5 hr 15 min

09-Discussion on attendees problems

2 hr 45 min

8 hr

2011 ANSYS, Inc.

December 3, 2012