gRPC server mode together with running MAPDL GUI

[dieter-wilhelm]

Hello

I tried to run MAPDL (Ansys 2020R2) with the -grpc and -g option (C:\CAx\App\ANSYS Inc\v202\ansys\bin\winx64\MAPDL.exe" -g -grpc -p preppost -lch -dir "D:\test_case\beam" -j "file" -s noread -l en-us -t -d win32) because I think for building and debugging a simulation model it is extremely helpful to feed commands - line by line - and to be able to check the intermediate results with a graphical feedback and be able to use all the available tools of the "Classics" GUI.

Unfortunately this is not possible for me, a terminal window appears with the message "Server listening on 0.0.0.0:50052" but the GUI doesn't come up. Do you have a hint, an idea on how to do this?

[natter1]

I don't think thats possible right now (but I would like it too). You could start the gui using open_gui() but thats not the same. Or you could use e.g. the plot-functions to see changes. Maybe its possible to have a special debug-plotter, thats updated automatically after each command?

[akaszynski]

@natter1 is correct. Right now, there's no way to launch in gRPC mode and have the GUI running. This would be a great feature to add, but I have my sincere doubts that this is possible given that Tcl/Tk isn't really the right GUI framework for remote GUIs.

[dieter-wilhelm]

I see, thank you for your feedback!

I've a question regrading pymapdl. Is it equally possible to feed the python commands, like "mapdl.prep7()" into the Tcl/Tk Gui's command window instead of sending them via gRPC? Or do you first interpret the pyhton code and build regular APDL code before submitting it to the solver/interpreter?

Sorry for the stupid question

[germa89]

Hi @dieter-wilhelm

You cannot use python commands in the mechanical GUI (tcl/tk). PyMAPDL converts the python commands to MAPDL commands which are latter sent to the MAPDL instance.