Solution Information Object

You can track, monitor, or diagnose problems that arise during any solution as well as view certain finite element aspects of the
engineering model, using a Solution Information object, which is inserted automatically under a Solution object of a new
environment or an environment included in a database from a previous release. You can also manually insert a Solution Information
object under a Connections object for solver feedback. When you select a Solution Information object in the tree, the following
controls are available in the Details view under the Solution Information category:
Solution Output: [not applicable to Connections object] Determines how you want solution response results displayed. All
of the options are displayed in real time as the solution progresses:
Solver Output (default): Displays the solution output file (text) from the appropriate solver (for example, the
Mechanical APDL application, AUTODYN). This option is valuable to users who are accustomed to reviewing this type
of output for diagnostics on the execution of their solver of choice.
Solve Script Output: (Design Assessment system only) Displays the log file from the python Solve script specified
for the current Design Assessment system.
Evaluate Script Output: (Design Assessment system only) Displays the log file from the python Evaluate script
specified for the current Design Assessment system.
Choosing any of the following options displays a graph of that option as a function of Cumulative Iteration/Cycle
(availability depends on the solver).
Force Convergence 1
Displacement Convergence 1
Rotation Convergence 1
Moment Convergence 1
Max DOF Increment
Line Search
Time
Time Increment
CSG Convergence 1 (magnetic current segments)
Heat Convergence 1
Energy Conservation shows plots of total energy, reference energy, work done, and energy error.
Momentum Summary shows plots of X, Y and Z momentum and X, Y and Z impulse for the model.
Energy summary shows plots of internal energy, kinetic energy, hourglass energy and contact energy.
Note: The frequency at which data is written can be specified as a time step frequency or a physical time
frequency. By default information is displayed for every 100 time steps.
1 - All convergence plots include designations where any bisections, converged substeps, or converged steps occur. These
designations are the red, green, and blue dotted lines shown in the example below of a Force Convergence plot.

Note: For ease of viewing solutions with many substeps/iterations, the Substep Converged and Load Step
Converged lines are not displayed when the number of lines exceeds 1000. Also, graphs are shown as lines
only, rather than lines and points, when the number of points exceeds 1000.
Newton-Raphson Residuals: [applicable only to Structural environments solved with the Mechanical APDL application]
Specifies the maximum number of Newton-Raphson residual forces to return. The default is 0 (no residuals returned). You can
request that the Newton-Raphson residual restoring forces be brought back for nonlinear solutions that either do not converge
or that you aborted during the solution. The Newton-Raphson force is calculated at each Newton-Raphson iteration and can
give you an idea where the model is not satisfying equilibrium. If you select 10 residual forces and the solution doesn't
converge, those last 10 residual forces will be brought back. The following information is available in the Details view of a
returned Newton-Raphson Residual Force object:
Results - Minimum and Maximum residual forces across the model
Convergence - Global convergence Criterion and convergence Value
Information - Time based information
These results cannot be scoped and will automatically be deleted if another solution is run that either succeeds or creates a new
set of residual forces.
Update Interval: (appears only for synchronous solutions) Specifies how often any of the result tracking items under a
Solution Information object get updated while a solution is in progress. The default is 2.5 seconds.
Display Points: [not applicable to Connections object] Specifies the number of points to plot for a graphical display
determined by the Solution Output setting (described above).
Display Filter During Solve: [applicable only when using Result Tracker filtering in Explicit Dynamics analyses] When set
to Yes, displays filtered data from Result Trackers in the Worksheet at each refresh interval of the Result Tracker. As shown
below, a legend is included in the Worksheet to help distinguish the filtered data from the non-filtered data. Typically there are
two curves, non-filtered data is displayed in red, and filtered data is displayed in green.

Note: If an error occurs during a solve when using the ANSYS solver, the Solution Information worksheet may point
you to files (for example, [Link]) in temporary scratch folders whose purpose is for solving only (this is the folder
where ANSYS actually ran). After the solution, these files are moved back to the project structure, so you may not find them
in the scratch folders (or sub-folders).

Viewing and Exporting Finite Element Connections

During the solution, the Mechanical application will sometimes create additional elements or Constrain Equations (CE) for certain objects

such as a remote boundary condition, spot weld, joint, MPC based contact, or weak spring. So that you might better understand how the
boundary conditions are applied, the Mechanical application allows you to view these connections after a solution is completed. The
following controls are available in the Details view under the FE Connection Visibility category:
Activate Visibility: Allows control on whether or not the finite element connection data is stored during the solution. If
visualization of the finite element connections will never be desired or to maximize performance on extreme models in which
many constraint equations exist, this feature can be deactivated by setting the value to No before solving the model. Note that
in the case of a multiple step analysis, if constraint equations are present, they will be reported from the first load step. The
default value for this property can be changed under Tools>Options>Analysis Settings .
Display: Allows control over which finite element connections are to be viewed. The options include:
All FE Connectors (Default)

CE Based (As illustrated below, outlined or hollow nodes indicate use for calculation purposes only.)

Beam Based
Weak Springs
None

This control is especially useful to separate the constraint equation connections from the beam connections. The
option None is available to assist in avoiding potential performance issues from this feature.
Draw Connections Attached To: provides a drop-down list with the option All Nodes (Default) and it will also list any
existing node-based Named Selections.
Line Color: Assigns colors to allow you to differentiate connections. The options include:
Connection Type (Default): Displays a color legend that presents one color for constraint equation connections and
another color for beam connections.
Manual: Displays a color that you choose.
Color: Appears if Line Color is set to Manual. By clicking in this field, you can choose a color from the color
palette.
Visible on Results: When set to Yes (Default), the finite element connections are displayed with any result plot (with the
exception of a base mesh). When set to No, the connections are displayed only when the Solution Information object is
selected.
Line Thickness: Displays the thickness of finite element connection lines in your choice of Single (default), Double, or
Triple.
Display Type: allows you to view FE connections as Lines (Default) or as Points. If you wish to view the Points of a
specified Named Selection, the nodes belonging to the Named Selection display as solid colors. Any other associated nodes not
belonging to the Named Selection, display with an outline only.
You can export the finite element connection information described above by right-clicking on the Solution Information object and
choosing Export FE Connections from the context menu. The Display control governs what information is exported. Information for
constraint equation connections is exported in terms of Mechanical APDL CE commands, while for beam and weak spring connections, a
list of material numbers is exported and written as a block of Mechanical APDL ESEL commands.
Note: Finite element connection information is not available for Response Spectrum analyses when the Spectrum Type
property is set to Single Point.

Tracking Background Solutions

When running background solutions, you can check the status of the solution by using the Retrieve feature, which is available in a
context menu when you right-click the mouse button on the Solution Information object. A Retrieve button is also available on the
Solution Information toolbar. In rare instances, the Retrieve feature could fail if the necessary files do not become available at a
particular time. Simply choosing Retrieve again will likely solve the issue.
Release 15.0 - SAS IP, Inc. All rights reserved.