Assign material in Mechanical through scripting

Pernelle Marone-Hitz

Using ACT, how can I select a body named selection and apply a material assignment to this named selection ?

Pernelle Marone-Hitz

The following code can be used. Please note the body named selection and the material must already be defined previous to using this code.

    ExtAPI.SelectionManager.ClearSelection()
    ns = ExtAPI.DataModel.GetObjectsByName("MyBodyNamedSelection")
    ma = ExtAPI.DataModel.Project.Model.Materials.AddMaterialAssignment()
    ma.Material = "MyMaterial"
    ma.Location = ns[0]

CollinsJnr

Hey @Pernelle Marone-Hitz

Please I have a question

This is a recording in Ansys Mechanical script for material assignment (similar to what you have)

region Details View Action

selection = ExtAPI.SelectionManager.CreateSelectionInfo(SelectionTypeEnum.GeometryEntities)
selection.Ids = [4]
material_assignment_37.Location = selection

endregion

region UI Action

with Transaction(True):
material_assignment_37.Material = "732b2fff-a359-4770-aaa8-e6a1c0aadfa9"

endregion

My question are:

1. What is "732b2fff-a359-4770-aaa8-e6a1c0aadfa9". It seems like a material identifier, but it keeps changing each time I run a new instant of mechanical.

2. How do I find it in each new mechanical instance? (I understand this identifier appears in the ds.dat file but at the start of the project, the ds.dat file is unavailable so I can't get it.)

Thank you in advance

Pernelle Marone-Hitz

Hi @CollinsJnr , the number you are getting is some reference to the material internal ids. As you have experienced, it is not robust to use it. Just use the name of the material, it should work and be robust.