{"id":25660,"date":"2011-03-02T16:45:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-02T16:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/2011\/03\/02\/ansys-mechanical-scripting-howto-part-4\/"},"modified":"2022-03-31T14:15:22","modified_gmt":"2022-03-31T21:15:22","slug":"ansys-mechanical-scripting-howto-part-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/2011\/03\/02\/ansys-mechanical-scripting-howto-part-4\/","title":{"rendered":"ANSYS Mechanical Scripting: HOWTO Part 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

Where we left Off Last Time\u2026<\/h1>\n

In the third part of this series, I left you with an introduction to the ANSYS Selection Manager and Geometry B-Rep.  We also created a sample script that iterated over all of the faces in a selected body and created a named selection for each face.   We built on our technique described in Part 2 for discovering ANSYS functionality.  <\/p>\n

Introducing the Microsoft Visual Studio Script Debugger<\/h1>\n

In this post I want to introduce you to the Visual Studio Script Debugger.  Running ANSYS Mechanical underneath the debugger is definitely the most powerful tool we have at our disposal when it comes to creating custom scripts.  If you can learn to use this tool effectively, you will be able to watch the inner workings of Mechanical interact with your scripts in a precisely controlled environment.  Furthermore, the rich debugger displays will allow you to see most all of the mechanical objects in suspended animation and will also allow you to investigate their properties and methods in real time.  Finally, the \u201cImmediate Window\u201d in the debugger will allow you to execute random pieces of code that you type in on the fly while Mechanical is suspended in the debugger.  This will allow you to test out various techniques and code sequences in one debugging session.   Simply put, you must become proficient at using the debugger to have any real hope of successfully scripting the ANSYS Mechanical tool.<\/p>\n

Some Preliminaries<\/h2>\n

There are a number of steps you need to take to actually get the debugger environment set up properly.  Here are a list of steps you need to take:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. You obviously need to install Visual Studio.  I use Visual Studio Professional 2010, but I think any version including 2005 and above will probably be sufficient.  I cannot speak to whether or not the Express Editions will work for this task, so if someone has experience with one of these editions and can shed some light, please post a comment. <\/li>\n
  2. In the Internet Explorer \u201cInternet Options\u201d dialog (arrived at through Tools->Internet Options\u2026) you need to make sure that \u201cDisable Script Debugging (Other)\u201d is unchecked.  See image below. <\/li>\n
  3. Finally, you need to adjust the registry setting HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows Script\\Settings\\JITDebug = 1 <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Debugging Code<\/h2>\n

    The easiest way to stop Mechanical in the debugger is to insert the javascript \u201cdebugger\u201d command wherever you would like to stop execution and look around.  So, for example, lets assume we have the following script:<\/p>\n

    function<\/span> my_func() {\n    debugger;\n    var<\/span> my_array = new<\/span> Array();\n    for<\/span>(var<\/span> i = 0; i < 10; i++) {\n        my_array[i] = 2*i;\n    }\n}\n\nmy_func();<\/pre>\n