Compiling UPFs

Sheldon Imaoka
Memo Number: STI0901
ANSYS Release: 11.0
February 7, 2009

1 Introduction

ANSYS User Programmable Features (UPFs) are quite powerful means of

customizing ANSYS beyond the scripting capabilities of the ANSYS Para-
metric Design Language (APDL). Writing one’s own constitutive models
or complex loading functions or even creating a user-defined element are
possible with UPFs.
Because some users may find it challenging to get started using UPFs,
this memo hopes to discuss general issues related to compiling and linking
a customized version of ANSYS for Windows and Linux environments.1

2 Getting Started

Before getting started, the user should refer to two important ANSYS docu-
ments. The ANSYS Installation and Licensing Documentation is accessible
from an ANSYS installation or from the ANSYS Customer Portal.2 Within
this document are the ANSYS, Inc. Windows Installation Guide and the
ANSYS, Inc. UNIX/Linux Installation Guide, both of which list the re-
quired compilers for each operating system. The user should keep in mind
that only the versions of the compilers noted in these documents are sup-
ported and have been tested, although newer versions may be OK.
The second important reference is the Programmer’s Manual for AN-
SYS, which only available from the ANSYS Customer Portal and must be
obtained from that site.3 This manual contains very useful information on
UPFs and supporting routines.
1
UPFs are also available on IBM AIX, Sun Solaris, SGI IRIX, and HP-UX systems.
2
http://www1.ansys.com/customer/
3
At ANSYS 12.0, the Programmer’s Manual for ANSYS is tentatively planned to be
included as part of the regular documentation of an ANSYS installation.

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Sheldon’s ansys.net Tips Compiling UPFs

UPFs are not installed by default, so the user must verify that the cus-
tomization files are included on their computer. In the ANSYS installation
directory, a folder called “custom” should be present on Windows, whereas
on Linux, a subdirectory called “customize” should exist. If the user does
not find such a directory, the user should contact their IT administrator and
reinstall ANSYS, being sure to specify that the customization files also be
installed.
Lastly, the user should already be familiar with programming in Fortran,
but having a good Fortran programming book on hand can serve as a helpful
reference.

3 Overview of Process

User Programmable Features typically involve writing subroutines in For-

tran. In ANSYS, Fortran 90 is the supported language, and there are many
examples in the “custom” or “customize” directory for each of the supported
user subroutines.
The general steps are as follows:

1. Assess whether the desired feature/capability is best implemented by

APDL or by UPFs.

2. If UPFs are needed, check Reference [2] to determine which subroutine

is best suited for the task.

3. Find the example subroutine in the “custom” or “customize” directory

and modify it accordingly.

4. With the supported compiler listed in Reference [1], compile subrou-

tine to create the object file.

5. With the supported linker, link the compiled object file and supplied
libraries to create a custom ANSYS executable.4

6. Run the customized ANSYS executable. In the ANSYS session, acti-

vate the user-programmable feature using the relevant ANSYS com-
mand.

The following subsections will discuss the above process in more detail.
4
On Linux systems, it is possible to create a shared library instead of an executable.
See Section 5.9 in Ref [2] for details.

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3.1 APDL vs. UPFs

While this may sound trivial, there have been many situations where users
have mistakenly thought that UPFs were required for tasks that are easier
to perform using APDL. While APDL can be thought of as a scripting lan-
guage that may be slower to execute than compiled code, APDL has vector
functions that speed up tasks considerably. Moreover, changing/adjusting
APDL input files is much easier than modifying subroutines and recompil-
ing/relinking. Hence, the user should consider whether or not the desired
functionality can be achieved with APDL, as that would generally be a much
easier, quicker approach than implementing UPFs.

3.2 Determining the Right Subroutine to Use

In Reference [2], there are many subroutines to choose from, and some may
seem to provide duplicate functionality with other subroutines. There are
some legacy subroutines available for users who may wish, for one reason
or another, to stick with older elements or older features. The “newer”
subroutines are typically associated with the current-technology elements.5
For example, to define one’s own nonlinear constitutive model, consider
using USERMAT.F instead of USERPL.F.

3.3 Compiling and Linking UPFs

Example UPFs are provided in the “user” folder of the “custom” (Win-
dows) or “customize” (Linux) subdirectories. Also with the example UPFs
is a script called ANSCUSTOM (ANSCUST.BAT on Windows) that facilitates link-
ing/compiling. Before running that script, it is important to note ANSCUSTOM
on any operating system needs to know (a) where the compiling/linking ex-
ecutables reside, (b) where system “include” files are located, and (c) where
“libraries” are located. These are usually achieved through the definition of
the PATH, INCLUDE, and LIB environment variables.
All of the user subroutines are in the same folder, so if the user decides
to compile in the “user” folder, compiling may take a while since all user
subroutines will be compiled and linked together.6 The author prefers either
5
Current technology elements include LINK180, BEAM188-189, SHELL181/281,
SHELL208-209, SOLSH190, SOLID185-187, and PLANE182/183. At ANSYS 12.0, elements
SOLID272-273, SOLID285, PIPE288-289, and ELBOW290 will be added to this list.
6
At ANSYS 12.0, the design may be changed on the Windows platform such that
example subroutines are in one folder and the ANSCUST.BAT script in a separate folder to
prevent this behavior.

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Sheldon’s ansys.net Tips Compiling UPFs

(a) to move all of the unused *.F files to a separate location to prevent un-
necessary compiling/linking or (b) to copy only necessary files and perform
the compiling/linking in a completely separate folder.

3.3.1 Setting up Compiling on Windows

On Windows, one typically installs the Microsoft compiler first, then the
Intel compiler. When a compatible Microsoft compiler has been installed,
the Intel Fortran batch file (IFORTVARS.BAT) is updated to include the path
to the Microsoft linker, which facilitates the compiling process.
For ANSYS 11.0 SP 1, the supported compiler for Windows is Intel
Fortran 9.1 while, for ANSYS 11.0 (original release), the supported compiler
is Intel Fortran 8.1 — Reference [1] for ANSYS 11.0 SP1 has not been
updated to reflect this important change. Please note that when a user
purchases an Intel compiler, they can register on the Intel Development
site7 . Once logged in, the user may not only obtain updates to the current
Intel Fortran version but also obtain older versions, such as versions 8.1 or
9.1.
The supported Microsoft compilers are listed in Ref [1], as mentioned
earlier. It is worth noting that Microsoft Visual Studio Express Edition 8
or Platform SDK 9 are also known to work for linking purposes, and these
products are available for free. However, the author has not attempted to
try all different versions of these products, so no guarantee is made that
these unsupported software will work for creating customized ANSYS ex-
ecutables. (Microsoft has renamed Platform SDK to Windows SDK for
current releases, and older Platform SDK releases should still be available
from Microsoft’s website.)
After installation of both Microsoft and Intel products (in that order),
from the “Start” menu, one should find a shortcut to the “Build Envi-
ronment for Fortran” in the “Intel Software Development Tools” submenu.
Right-click and select “Properties” to see the path of the shortcut — it
should point to a batch file called IFORTVARS.BAT. Open this batch file
in a text editor, and one should see a call statement that calls the Mi-
crosoft Visual C++ environment batch file VCVARS32.BAT or VCVARSALL.BAT
(On Windows systems using the Platform SDK, the called file is actually
SETENV.CMD). If this line is commented out, one may be able to replace it
with a call to the appropriate Visual Studio batch file.
7
https://registrationcenter.intel.com/RegCenter/
8
http://www.microsoft.com/express/default.aspx
9
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/bb980924.aspx

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Sheldon’s ansys.net Tips Compiling UPFs

Once this is done, the IFORTVARS.BAT batch file can be called or run to
set up the correct PATH, LIB, and INCLUDE environment variables for the
Intel Fortran compiler and Microsoft linker. (While a user may define these
environment variables at the system level, the author does not recommend
doing this since that would prevent multiple compiler versions to be installed
and usable on the same PC.)
In the ANSYS installation directory, find ANSCUST.BAT in the “cus-
tom\user” folder. Open this in a text editor, and in the second line, add
the DOS command call <...>\ifortvars.bat, where <...> should be
replaced by the full path of the IFORTVARS.BAT batch file. If spaces are
present, enclose the full path in double-quotes. Also, the author prefers to
add a pause command at the very end of the ANSCUST.BAT file. That way,
one can double-click on the ANSCUST.BAT file, and the DOS window will not
disappear, allowing the user to determine whether compiling was successful
or not.
An alternative to modifying the batch files through the process described
above is to (1) open the appropriate Microsoft build environment command
prompt, (2) cd to the directory of the Intel Fortran compiler and execute
IFORTVARS.BAT, then (3) cd to the directory containing the subroutines and
run the ANSCUST.BAT script. This manually performs the steps described
earlier.
The files in the ANSYS “user\platform” subdirectory that are required
for compiling are as follows:

• ANSCUST.BAT (or, for Large Memory version on 64-bit Windows, AN-

SCUST LM.BAT)

• ansyslarge.def and ansyssmall.def

• MAKEFILE (or, for Large Memory version on 64-bit Windows, MAKE-

FILE LM)

• *.F subroutine(s) to compile

The author prefers copying the necessary files listed above to a separate
directory for compiling purposes.
Once this has been set up, one may double-click on the ANSCUST.BAT
batch file to create the new, customized ANSYS executable.
Once compiling is successful, the user should see several files created:

• *.obj are compiled object files for each compiled .F file

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Sheldon’s ansys.net Tips Compiling UPFs

• f comp.log (and, if *.c files are used, c comp.log) contain output

from the compiler, which is useful to review error messages that may
appear

• There will be several ANSYS.* files, the most important of which are
the ANSYS.exe customized executable and ANSYS.exe.manifest man-
ifest files. The other files, such as ANSYS.lib and ANSYS.exp and
ANSYS.map are not required, although they can just be left in the di-
rectory.

3.3.2 Setting Up Compiling on Linux

For Linux, the user should install the supported compilers listed in Refer-
ence [1]. As with the case in Windows, the proper PATH, LIB, and IN-
CLUDE environment variables need to be defined. For the Intel Fortran
Compiler for Linux, both C-shell and Bourne-shell scripts are available to
set this up with names of ifortvars.csh and ifortvars.sh, respectively.
Add the command to source this file in your shell configuration file (e.g.,
.tcshrc for tcsh or .bashrc for bash).
If the user does not have permissions to modify the “customize/user”
subdirectory, copy its contents to a folder in the home directory. From
there, the ANSCUSTOM script can be executed simply by typing its name (or
you may need to use ./ANSCUSTOM and verify that the script is executable).
It is worth noting that only the ANSCUSTOM script and desired user subroutine
need to be copied to the user’s directory to create a customized executable,
so the user does not have to copy and compile all files of the ANSYS “user”
subdirectory.
After the script completes successfully, the user should see an .o object
file for each subroutine compiled, link.err and link.out diagnostic files
(on Linux, the Intel Fortran ifort script also performs the linking), and the
customized ANSYS executable called anscust.e110. The user can view the
contents of the link.err and link.out files to see if any problems occurred.

3.4 Running the Customized ANSYS Executable

After the compiling and linking process is successful, users can use the
“ANSYS Product Launcher” (launcher110 command on Linux) to run
the customized executable. On the “Customization/Preferences” tab of the
“ANSYS Product Launcher”, specify the full path of the “Custom ANSYS
Executable”. On Windows, it is also important to note that the ANSYS

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Sheldon’s ansys.net Tips Compiling UPFs

“bin\platform” subdirectory must be included in the system PATH environ-

ment variable for the customized executable to find the relevant DLLs.
For users comfortable with command-line execution, the syntax is an-
sys110 -custom <path> with any additional arguments included. The
<path> should be the absolute or relative path to the customized executable.
On Windows, the customized executable is called ansys.exe whereas on
Linux, it is called ansyscust.e110.10
After launching ANSYS, to verify that the customized version is being
used, refer to the Output Window or Output File for the following line:

Note - This ANSYS version was linked by Licensee

which verifies that the customized rather than standard version is being
used.

4 Special Topics

4.1 Troubleshooting
Below are some troubleshooting tips.

4.1.1 I run ANSCUST.BAT but nothing happens

Follow the instructions given in Section 3.3.1. Check the DOS window to see
what error message(s) may be present. If error messages such as ’ifort’ is
not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program
or batch file. appear, this means that the IFORTVARS.BAT file was not
called properly. If errors such as ’nmake’ is not recognized as an internal
or external command, operable program or batch file., this means
that the Microsoft Visual C++ or Visual Studio environment was not de-
fined correctly. Lastly, if a .lib file is missing, search your computer for
that .lib file. If the file is present, check to see its location and whether or
not the LIB environments may be defined correctly; if the file is not present,
most likely the correct Microsoft compiler is not installed on the system.
10
In ANSYS 9.0 and prior, Linux users needed to use the ansyscust90 script instead
of ansys90 to invoke the customized executable. Also, in version 9.0 and prior, the
customized executable was named ansys.eVVt instead of ansyscust.eVVV, where VV is
the version number.

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Sheldon’s ansys.net Tips Compiling UPFs

4.1.2 I get an “unresolved external symbol powr8i4 referenced”

error during compiling
On Windows systems with ANSYS 10.0 or 11.0 (original release), this may
appear when using Intel Fortran 9.1 or higher version and a power function
(e.g., x**y) is present in the subroutine. Either redefine the equation or use
the supported version (Intel Fortran 8.1).
Conversely, if running ANSYS 11.0 SP 1, this appears if the user is
compiling with Intel Fortran 8.1 since the compiler requirement has been
upgraded for 11.0 SP 1. Upgrade to Intel Fortran 9.1 to resolve this problem.

4.1.3 When using a custom ANSYS executable, I try to save a

hardcopy to file but ANSYS aborts
This problem may occur if you are using Microsoft Visual Studio Express
Edition or Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, where an incompatible graphics
library is present. After solving the simulation with the custom executable,
one can postprocess state variables and other quantities with the standard
ANSYS version, allowing users to save graphics images if unable to do so
with the customized ANSYS version.

4.1.4 When compiling version 9.0 or 10.0 of ANSYS on Linux, I

get an “undefined reference to ‘glPolygonOffsetEXT”’ er-
ror
This may be due to missing XFree86 development libraries (required pack-
ages are listed in Reference [1]). Many newer Linux distributions use X.Org
rather than XFree86 for the X server implementation, and the appropriate
OpenGL libraries may not be installed. (On Ubuntu or Debian, the required
package may be called libgl1-mesa-swx11-dev.)

4.2 Cross-Compiling
Although more of an “advanced” topic, it is worth noting that cross-compiling
is also possible. For example, on a 64-bit Windows PC, a user may create a
customized executable for 32-bit Windows, although it is not possible to cre-
ate a 64-bit Windows executable from a 32-bit Windows system. To cross-
compile, the user (a) must have a compiler that supports cross-compiling
and (b) needs to have that platform’s “custom” directory available.
To cross-compile 32-bit Windows on 64-bit Windows, do the following:

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Sheldon’s ansys.net Tips Compiling UPFs

1. Install the appropriate cross-compilers. On 64-bit Windows for AN-

SYS 11.0 SP1, the 32-bit versions of Intel Fortran 9.1 and Microsoft
Platform SDK SP1 are usually installed by default during a typical
installation process.
2. Obtain the ANSYS “custom” directory for a 32-bit Windows installa-
tion, and copy it to the 64-bit Windows’ ANSYS installation directory.
Note that platform-specific files are located in an “intel” or “winx64”
subdirectory, so it is possible to simply copy over the contents. Please
note, however, that it is not good practice to mix 11.0 original release
files with those of 11.0 SP 1.
3. (Optional) If 32-bit testing will need to be performed on the 64-bit PC,
also copy the “intel” subdirectories of the “bin” and “lib” directories.
4. Modify the 32-bit version of the ANSCUST.BAT file as noted in Sec-
tion 3.3.1. Be sure that the IFORTVARS.BAT of the 32-bit version of
the Intel Fortran compiler is being referenced.
5. Run ANSCUST.BAT. Both the Microsoft and Intel compilers should in-
dicate that a 32-bit version is being run. This should allow the user
to compile a 32-bit ANSYS.EXE.
6. (Optional) To perform tests, the easiest method is to create a DOS
batch file in the same folder as the 32-bit customized ANSYS exe-
cutable. Add set ANSYS SYSDIR=intel to set the platform to 32-bit
Windows, and include the appropriate DLLs with set PATH=%ANSYS110 -
DIR%\bin\%ANSYS SYSDIR%;%PATH%. Then use ansys110 -g -custom
.\ansys.exe in the file. Double-click on this batch file and verify in
the Output Window that this the platform is “INTEL NT” and that
it is a customized version (look for the “linked by Licensee” note).

5 Conclusion

This memo attempted to cover some basic items related to creating one’s
own custom ANSYS executable on Windows and Linux.

References

[1] ANSYS, Inc. Installation and Licensing Documentation, 2007.

[2] ANSYS, Inc. Programmer’s Manual for ANSYS, 2007.

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Sheldon’s ansys.net Tips General Information

Sheldon’s ansys.net Tips and Tricks

Sheldon’s ansys.net Tips and Tricks are available at the following URL:
http://ansys.net/sheldon tips/
Please remember that, with each release of ANSYS, new features and tech-
niques may be introduced, so please refer to the ANSYS documentation as
well as your local ANSYS support office to verify that these tips are the
most up-to-date method of performing tasks.
Disclaimer: the author has made attempts to ensure that the informa-
tion contained in this memo is accurate. However, the author assumes no
liability for any use (or misuse) of the information presented in this docu-
ment or accompanying files. Please refer to ansys.net for the latest version
of this document. Also, this memo and any accompanying input files are
not official ANSYS, Inc. documentation.

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