1. Appendix A 12.0 Workbench Environment
Workbench - Mechanical
Structural Nonlinearities

2. Appendix A: Workbench 12.0
This Appendix is intended for students who are not yet familiar with the new Workbench Environment at 12.0.
Topics covered include:
Introduction to the Workbench Environment at 12.0
Workbench File Management
Working With Units
License Preferences

3. A. Introduction to WB 12.0
For most situations the Workbench GUI is divided into 2 primary sections (there are other optional sections we’ll see in a moment):
The Toolbox
The Project Schematic

4. ... Introduction to WB 12.0 The toolbox contains 4 subgroups:
Analysis systems: predefined templates that can be placed in the schematic.
Component systems: various applications that can be accessed to build, or expand, analysis systems.
Custom Systems: predefined analysis systems for coupled applications (FSI, thermal-stress, etc.). Users can also create their own predefined systems.
Design Exploration: Parametric management and optimization tools.

5. ... Introduction to WB 12.0
The systems and components displayed in the toolbox will depend on the installed products.
Using the check boxes in the “View All / Customize” window, the items displayed in the toolbox can be toggled on or off.
The toolbox customization window is normally left closed when not in use.

6. ... Introduction to WB 12.0
The Workbench project schematic is a graphical representation of the workflow defining a system or group of systems.
The workflow in the project schematic is always left to right.
There are currently several applications which are native to Workbench, meaning they run entirely in the Workbench window:
Project Schematic, Engineering Data and Design Exploration
Non-native applications (called data-integrated) run in their own window:
Mechanical (formerly Simulation), Mechanical APDL (formerly ANSYS), ANSYS Fluent, ANSYS CFX, Etc . . .
Blocks of cells can be deleted by RMB on the block header cell that is shaded in blue.

7. ... Introduction to WB 12.0
In this example a Static Structural analysis type is selected for the project schematic.
From the toolbox the selection can be dragged and dropped onto the schematic or simply double clicked.

8. ... Introduction to WB 12.0
By dropping applications and/or systems into various locations in the schematic, an overall analysis project is defined.
“Connectors” indicate the level of collaboration between systems.
In the example below a structural system is dragged and dropped onto a thermal system at the Model cell (A4).
Before completing the operation notice there are a number of optional “drop targets” that will provide various types of linkage between systems (continued next page).

9. ... Introduction to WB 12.0
By completing the operation from the previous page, notice the linkage here is only at the Model level and above.
In this case there would be no thermal/structural coupling.
Notice too each system block is given an alphabetic designation (A, B, C, etc.).

10. ... Introduction to WB 12.0
By dropping the structural system at the “Solution” level we obtain a structural system that is coupled to the thermal solution.
Notice, the candidate “drop target” indicates data will be shared from fields A2 to A4, and transferred from A6.

11. ... Introduction to WB 12.0
A schematic can also be constructed by RMB and choosing to “Transfer Data To New” or “Transfer Data From New”.
In using this RMB transfer feature all transfer possibilities (upstream and downstream) are displayed.
These selections will vary depending on which cell in a particular system you highlight.

12. ... Introduction to WB 12.0 Identifying cell states:
Unfulfilled: missing upstream data.
Attention required: may need to correct this or upstream cells.
Refresh required: upstream data has changed. Need to refresh cell (update will also refresh the cell).
Update required: the data has changed and the output of the cell must be regenerated.
Up to date.
Input changes pending: cell is locally up to date but may change when the next update is performed due to upstream changes.

13. ... Introduction to WB 12.0
The “View” menu (and RMB) allows additional information to be displayed in the Workbench environment.
Below, the geometry is highlighted and the properties are displayed.

14. B. Workbench File Management
Workbench creates a project file and a series of subdirectories to manage all associated files.
Users should allow Workbench to manage the content of these directories. Please do NOT manually modify the content or structure of the project directories.
When a project is saved a project file is created (.wbpj), using the user specified file name (e.g. MyFile.wbpj).
A project directory will be created using the project name. In the above example the directory would be MyFile_files.
A number of subdirectories will be created in the project directory (explained next).

15. . . . Workbench File Management
Directory Structure:
dpn: this is the design point directory. This essentially is the state of all parameters for a particular analysis. In the case of a single analysis there will be only one “dp0” directory.
global: contains subdirectories for each application in the analysis. In the example at right the “Mech” directory will contain the database, and other associated files from the Mechanical application.
SYS: the “SYS” directory will contain subdirectories for each system type in the project (e.g. Mechanical, Fluent, CFX, etc.). Each system subdirectory contains solver specific files. For example the MECH subdirectory would contain the results file, the ds.dat file, solve.out file and so on.
user_files: contains input files, user macro files etc. that may be associated with a project.

16. . . . Workbench File Management
From the Workbench “View” menu activate the “Files” option to display a window containing file details and locations.

17. . . . Workbench File Management
Archive: quickly generates a single compressed file containing all pertinent files.
File is zip format and can be opened using the “Restore Archive ” utility in WB2 or any unzip program.
Several options are available when archiving systems as shown here.

18. C. Working With Units The Units menu in Workbench:
Active Project
Default Unit System
Suppress Unit Display
The Units menu in Workbench:
Allows access to predefined unit systems.
Allows the creation of custom unit systems.
Controls unit display for Engineering Data, Parameters and Charts.
Activate the Units System dialog to control.
Units can be displayed in the active Project system or as they were defined in their source (e.g. CAD system).

19. . . . Working With Units
Create custom unit systems by duplicating existing systems then modifying.
Custom unit systems can be exported and imported.

20. D. License Preferences
Workbench license control is handled through the user interface shown below, activated from the Workbench project page (“Tools > License Preferences “).

21. . . . License Preferences
With the available licenses displayed, the activation and “use order” can be specified using the up/down arrows.
0 = off, 1 = on
License order represents the preference order for license use.
The license control allows Workbench users to specify whether a single license is used when multiple applications are open, or if all open applications access their own license.

22. . . . License Preferences
In the example shown, a user could have 3 Mechanical models open simultaneously. Using the license control they may choose to open 3 licenses or use only 1 that is shared. In the shared scenario, only the active Mechanical session uses the license (the remaining will be read only).