Page 16 - Finite Element Analysis with ANSYS Workbench

1.1 Solving Engineering Problems 7

same time, NASTRAN (NAsa STRuctural ANalysis program) was
also popular and being used by NASA Engineers. I remembered
Dr. Swanson came to NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton,
Virginia to promote his software while I was an engineer there. He
gave coffee cups with the early yellow/black ANSYS logo to
NASA engineers working in the CAE department.

Nowadays, ANSYS is a software widely used all over
the world for analyzing a large class of problems in many fields.
This is mainly because the software is easy to learn and use.
Various problems can be solved conveniently while solutions are
displayed graphically on the computer screen.

1.3.1 ANSYS Workbench

In the early days of ANSYS development, the Disk
Operating System (DOS) was the most widely used operating
system on computers. ANSYS users needed to type long and
specific commands through keyboards. These commands were
required to construct model geometry, such as lines, arcs, surfaces,
volumes, etc. Various commands were also needed to create
meshes, apply boundary conditions and execute the problem for
solutions. Using the software for analyzing a problem at that time
was not convenient at all.

Development of Windows environment has provided
the ease of using the software. With mouse and keyboard, users
can interact with the software graphically. Lately, ANSYS has
introduced the Workbench function which further simplifies the use
of the software via Graphic User Interface (GUI). The ANSYS
Workbench is employed to solve various types of problems
presented as examples in this book.

1.3.2 Screen and Tool Bars
The starting workbench window consists of the menu
and tool bars at the top. The large two areas below are the Toolbox
and Project Schematic regions as shown in the figure.