This article describes the workflow for accessing ANSYS HFSS from ANSYS Electronics Desktop in batch mode on Nimbix platform.
To access HFSS from Electronic Desktop on NIMBIX in batch mode, the following steps are required:
1. Select the desired ANSYS Electronics release from the Compute dashboard from Nimbix
If you cannot find the icon of the ANSYS Electronics release you want to use on the first page that pops up, click on “More” button at the bottom of the page:
2. Click on the Electronics Desktop (Batch) icon as shown below:
3. This will bring you to the environment set-up screen and here you must choose some of your settings by clicking on the tabs on the top of the window (General, Optional, etc) one tab at a time.
UNDER GENERAL TAB
1. Under Machine type when you click on the caret on the right, you can select the type of machine you want to run your job on. The decision on machine type selection is based on the size and complexity of your model and cost associated with the machine type (some machines will have higher RAM, others will only run the job on single CPU, others will have better graphics and therefore higher cost, etc). Batch processing runs faster than the interactive counterpart so 8 to 16 cores is typically a good number to select.
2. Select the number of cores:
The machine type you selected in the previous step, will dictate the increment in the number of cores that you can choose/select. For a very simple and small model, you can leave default selection, which in this case would be “16” or move the scroll bar to the desired number of cores or simply type over “16” the number of cores you wish to run your job on.
NOTE: Do not confuse the number of cores with the number of nodes (nodes represent the number of increment of cores that you selected. In this example, we selected 1 node with 16 cores).
3. Select the Input file in the “Parameters” section by clicking the “…” ellipsis and navigating to the folder where the HFSS input file is located:
NOTE: Use a local computer/license to create the input file (.aedt, .aedtz) and complete the pre-processing work for your project. Save your work in the desired folder in your “Elastic_File” or “Performance_SSD” vault as desired.
Leave the “Use Automatic Settings” checked.
UNDER OPTIONAL TAB
1. Assign a Job Label (give a name that will help you keep track on your running jobs. For example, My_Microstrip_Batch):
Select your Setup Type (Nominal or Optimetrics) depending on the problem set-up:
NOTE: Additional settings:
- Design Name – Specify design name for the project (each project can contain several designs, specify design name wished to run). The design name must exist in the active HFSS project you are solving (rename as needed)
- Setup Name – Specify the setup name (in the analysis settings you can rename your setup to differentiate between setups)
- Debug options – Check the box to enable additional logging for debugging your project.
UNDER STORAGE TAB
1. Select vault type: Default vault is “Elastic_File”
The “Elastic_File” vault is recommended for small to medium size jobs, such as Icepak projects, simple linear Mechanical Analysis projects, some HFSS and simple Fluent projects (not multi-phase). For any complex and computationally heavy jobs, and where partitioning the job over number of cores becomes challenging, the Performance_SSD vault is strongly recommended. The Performance_SSD vault can be found in the drop-down under “Select Vault” tab (NOTE: requires subscription and extra monthly payment to have access to Performance_SSD vault).
Before submitting your job for running, you can preview your settings under the PREVIEW SUBMISSION tab.
Click “SUBMIT” green button to submit your job to the solver
Once the job is submitted, you can monitor your progress in the preview window.
Click on “Detailed Job Metrics” to visualize the performance. In this case, we have chosen 1 node with 16 cores. Utilization starts low (as the job is setup) and increases as the job progresses:
NOTE: Node utilization updates every 30 seconds for your convenience:
Batch process runs in the background and closes when the job is completed. There is no post processing in batch mode. You can see the entire output file (click the caret to expand the window):
You can download the entire output file on your local machine for debugging purposes by clicking on the “Download” icon on the top right of the output window.
VISUALIZE YOUR RESULTS
Batch process runs in the background and closes when the job is completed. There is no post-processing in batch mode. Download your results from the working directory onto your local machine and post process using Electronics Desktop graphical user interface.