5/5/2016 How to use scripts to generate a plane wing using ANSYS Design Modeler 15.0 – Customer Portal

https://esss.zendesk.com/hc/en­us/articles/205250985­How­to­use­scripts­to­generate­a­plane­wing­using­ANSYS­Design­Modeler­15­0 1/5

Submit a requestMy activities

How To Use Scripts To Generate A Plane Wing Using

ANSYS Design Modeler 15.0

INTRODUCTIONThis article presents a procedure to generate a plane wing using Ansys Design

Modeller 15.0 and Ansys Workbench 15.0.

(but it should also work without significant changes on the prior versions).

The basic idea is:

Use a Python script to generate an in-memory JScript file with the

commands to construct the wing. The JScript is responsible for:

Generate one or more planes, distant from each other in the Z

direction;

Generate the wing profiles, using the NACA algorithm, one for

each plane created;

Generate the solid from the profiles by using the Skin tool.

Use this same Python script to "inject" the JScript file on a previously

created Design Modeller system on Ansys Workbench.

All you have to do is create a Design Modeller in the Workbench Project

Schematic, as below:

RELATED ARTICLES

How To Run Mechanical Benchmark

Cases

About ESSS

How to Run Fluent Benchmark Cases

Comparação entre modelos com

comportamentos elasto-plásticos

(Encruamento Isotrópico /

Encruamento Cinemático).

Procedimento Para Instalar ANSYS Inc

License Manager 17.0 (Windows E

Linux)

PROMOTED ARTICLES

Non-drag Forces Implemented In

Rocky DEM-CFD Coupling Module

Procedimiento de Instalación ANSYS

License Manager 16.0 (Windows y

Linux)

Procedimiento de Instalación ANSYS

16.0 (Windows y Linux)

How to Create and Submit your First

Ticket

First Access to the ESSS Customer

Portal

Customer Portal > ANSYS > Tips & Tricks

Sign in

Search ὐ�

Vinicius Strugata Ambrosio

Created: June 22, 2014 04:58 - Updated: August 01, 2014 19:02

5/5/2016 How to use scripts to generate a plane wing using ANSYS Design Modeler 15.0 – Customer Portal

https://esss.zendesk.com/hc/en­us/articles/205250985­How­to­use­scripts­to­generate­a­plane­wing­using­ANSYS­Design­Modeler­15­0 2/5

THE SOLUTIONIn general, most of the ANSYS tools are "scriptable". ANSYS Workbench uses

Python as script language, whereas Ansys Design Modeler uses JScript. But how

could we use these two languages to generate the plane wing ?

The answer relies on the Workbench ability to "inject" commands in the Systems

in the Project Schematic.

This can be done by using these Python commands:

geomSystem = GetSystem(Name="Geom")

geometryComponent =

geomSystem.GetContainer(ComponentName="Geometry")

geometryComponent.Edit(Interactive=False)

geometryComponent.SendCommand(Command=jscript)

The command SendCommand injects the contents of the variable jscript in the

system geomSystem (which is a DesignModeler system).

So, in theory, all you need to do is generate this JScript, correct? Yes, and you'll

realize that such script is not so hard to write (but also is not a simple one).

NACA PROFILEThe full explanation of the Naca is beyond the scope of this article. You can find

a very good explanation on this wikipedia link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NACA_airfoil

Here I'm using the 4-digit series. But the code could be easily adapted to a more

complex series (5-digit, 6-digit, ...).

The formula for the shape of a NACA 4-digit is:

An excerpt for the respective Python code is:

_x = 1 - math.cos(math.radians(n) * (90.0 / (self._numberOfPoints - 1)))

x.append(_x)

_yt = (_t / 0.2) * (0.2969 * math.sqrt(_x) - 0.126 * _x - 0.3516 * _x ** 2 +

0.2843 * _x ** 3 - 0.1015 * _x ** 4)

yt.append(_yt)

if _x < _p:

5/5/2016 How to use scripts to generate a plane wing using ANSYS Design Modeler 15.0 – Customer Portal

https://esss.zendesk.com/hc/en­us/articles/205250985­How­to­use­scripts­to­generate­a­plane­wing­using­ANSYS­Design­Modeler­15­0 3/5

  _yc = (_m / _p ** 2) * (2 * _p * _x - _x ** 2)

else:

  _yc = (_m / (1 - _p) ** 2) * ((1 - 2 * _p) + 2 * _p * _x - _x ** 2)

yc.append(_yc)

You can find the full source code in a ZIP file attached in this article.

Once we have all the coordinates calculaded by the Python code, it's possible to

generate the JScript code that effectively builds the profile. In fact, such code is a

sequence of the following command:

p.Ln7 = Line(   0.00000,    0.00000,    0.00064,    0.00172);

In summary, this command instructs Design Modeler script engine to draw a line

from a x1,y1 coordinate to a x2,y2 coordinate. There are as many commands like

above as the points defined to generate the each profile. 

By running the full code, you get a set of profiles like is shown in the figure

below:

Important: Please notice that we've got a profile for each plane created. This is

important, because in this case all the points of a given profile are coplanar.

SOLID CREATIONOnce we have all the profiles created, we can use the Skin command to generates

the solid which in turn is the plane wing.

The JScript code that does this solid is shown below:

var Skin1 = agb.Skin(agc.Add, agc.No, 0.0, 0.0);

Skin1.Name = "Skin";

Skin1.AddBaseObject(skPlaneP01.Sk1);

Skin1.AddBaseObject(skPlaneP02.Sk1);

Skin1.AddBaseObject(skPlaneP03.Sk1);

Skin1.AddBaseObject(skPlaneP04.Sk1);

agb.Regen()

THE WING DEFINITIONBelow is the python code that does all the magic. It creates a WingGenerator

5/5/2016 How to use scripts to generate a plane wing using ANSYS Design Modeler 15.0 – Customer Portal

https://esss.zendesk.com/hc/en­us/articles/205250985­How­to­use­scripts­to­generate­a­plane­wing­using­ANSYS­Design­Modeler­15­0 4/5

object, and also defines 4 profiles:

1. NACA 0412, factor scale 1.0, at the 0 position

2. NACA 2412, factor scale 0.7, at the 2 position

3. NACA 4412, factor scale 0.5, at the 4 position

4. NACA 4606, factor scale 0.4, at the 6 position

ng = WingGenerator()

ng.addProfile("P01", 0, 4, 12, 1.0, 0)

ng.addProfile("P02", 2, 4, 12, 0.7, 2)

ng.addProfile("P03", 4, 4, 12, 0.5, 4)

ng.addProfile("P04", 4, 6, 06, 0.4, 6)

jscript = ng.writeScript()

The jscript variable contains the commands which will later injected in the

DesignModeler system, as previously mentioned in this article.

FINAL RESULTThe final result can be seen below:

As you can see, the result is very good.

USAGEThe procedure to use this script is at follows:

1. Edit the final part of the script to add as many profiles you want.

Obviously, you need to know beforehand the NACA profiles you want

to use and their respective position and scale

2. In the Workbench GUI,

1. Creates a blank project with a Geometry system on it;

2. Selects File->Scripting ->Run Script File ..., and selects the

edited python script

3. (The wing building process occurs in the background)

3. Open Design Modeller

4. Enjoy!

5/5/2016 How to use scripts to generate a plane wing using ANSYS Design Modeler 15.0 – Customer Portal

https://esss.zendesk.com/hc/en­us/articles/205250985­How­to­use­scripts­to­generate­a­plane­wing­using­ANSYS­Design­Modeler­15­0 5/5

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Google+

FINAL REMARKS

Please notice that the required Python script is attached to this article

The code can be improved in many ways:

You can use different plane orientations for each profile

You can adapt the code to use profiles not generated by the

NACA algorithm (e.g:, to generate a wind turbine blade);

You can use splines to join the points, instead of straight lines;

You can adapt the code to generate the farfield, if your

intention is a CFD analysis.

LINKS

About ESSS

www.python.org

wing_generator.zip (3 KB)

Have more questions? Submit a request

Comments

Florianópolis +55 (48) 3953-0000 | São Paulo +55 (11) 3046-5744 | Rio de Janeiro +55 (21) 3293-1300 | Caxias do Sul +55 (54) 3419-1257

Home  |   Services  |   Software  |   Education  |   Company  |   Contact Us

© 2015 ESSS - All rights reserved

Powered by Zendesk

Was this article helpful? ὄ� ὄ� 2 out of 2 found this helpful