Learning Forum

[rainwadj]

I have a researcher who is unable to use Ansys 2022/R2, specifically the Mechanical application.  After entering the 'runwb2' command, he opens his project file, then double-clicks the Model entry under Static Structural.  The first issue is that we see no geometry model in the viewer like we should (circled red). This is confirmed by hitting the 'Zoom-To-Fit' button which will fit the imported geometry in the graphics viewer (crcled yellow). Secondly, a 'Ruler' should be located in the black circled area. Third, a 'Triad' (3D axis showing direction of x, y, and, z) should appear in the green circled area. I ensured that those options are enabled so they should be in the graphics window. Lastly, if you click the '+' next to 'Geometry Imports' (circled purple) to expand the list of geometry imports and click on 'Geometry Import (B3)', the Mechanical application crashes and the terminal reports the fatal error.

This is all on Linux (CentOS 7 and Ubuntu 20.04).

Any ideas?

[holderjm]

In case anyone was curious about assistance, we (I being the above mentioned researcher) had a post opened earlier this year regarding the same problem but were unable to find a solution with any of the answers provided in the older post. I really need the problem fixed, so I'd VERY much appreciate any and help.

[rainwadj]

FYI, all of the above tests were done with VNC.  Today, I tried the same project using simple X11 forwarding over SSH.  The results were the same.

[randyk]

Hi Rainwadj,

ANSYS applications require a suitable graphics card to render graphics.
When using VNC, VirtualGL should be installed and configured to render graphics on the remote Linux computer.

As ROOT, run “/opt/VirtualGL/bin/vglserver_config”

§ Choose “1) Configure server for use with VirtualGL”

§ Choose “N” for 3D X server access restriction.

§ Choose “N” for framebuffer device access restriction.

§ Choose “Y” to disable XTEST extension

§ Choose “X) Exit”

o To test the VirtualGL install, issue the following commands:

§ Run “glxgears” command on local display and confirm that moving gears image shows up.

§ To test with VirtualGL, run “vglrun glxgears” command and confirm that moving gears image shows up.

You would start WB with "vglrun  /path/runwb2"

Hope this helps,
-Randy

[rainwadj]

 

glxgears works both with and without vglrun.  When I try vglrun with runwb2, it loads the project window, but when I double-click the Model line, it says ‘Starting Mechanical’ at the bottom of the window, but never opens.  Eventually, I get errors in the Terminal window related to VirtualGL.  See attached screenshot.

 

 

[randyk]

I see you are directing VGL to reference a specific installed graphics card.

Perhaps some more details:
vglrun glxinfo | grep -i opengl

-- look for graphics card
lspci -vnn | grep VGA -A 12
-- list graphics 
nvidia-smi
-- get driver details

cat /etc/*release
-- what is the OS
VGL_LOGO=1 vglrun +v glxinfo|head -10
-- does VirtualGL logo show on lower right
-- what details are displayed
-- what is fps value

 

[rainwadj]

This is happening on a mix of systems running CentOS 7 and Ubuntu 20.04.  I'm redirecting vglrun with -d :3 because I'm connected remotely with VNC using port 5903.  However, Ansys doesn't work locally on the physical machine either.  In either case, the windows and controls get displayed, but not the contents.

The output of the lspci and 2 vglrun commands is attached, for one of the systems.  I've tried running Ansys on multiple systems though, with different OS and graphics card combinations.  Ansys 19.2 worked fine on all of them, but anything after that does not.

[randyk]

 

Hi Rainwadj,

I believe the issue is the inadaquate video card – your hardware is a Matrox MGA G200.
The Matrox card is not suitable for the required rendering, it is in these servers to provide basic video functionallity.

Do you have any systems with a decent Nvidia card and current drivers?
Can you please try configuring VirtualGL on those systems and demonstrating functionallity?

ANSYS provides a list of tested/supported video cards on our platform page: https://www.ansys.com/it-solutions/platform-support

thanks
Randy

 

[Don Rainwater]

Sorry, that graphics card is in a server, and may not have been the best example.  Other workstations in the lab have:

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Turks GL [FirePro V4900]

NVIDIA Corporation GP107GL [Quadro P400]

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Navi 10 [Radeon RX 5600 OEM/5600 XT / 5700/5700 XT]

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Ellesmere [Radeon RX 470/480/570/570X/580/580X/590]

 

[Don Rainwater]

Still trying to get this resolved.

I installed a new Ubuntu 20.04 VM on our VMware cluster, and configured it to use the cluster's A40 grid cards.  This VM shows that the OpenGL version is 4.6, so that should be sufficient.  As before, all of the UI loads, but the pieces of the model do not appear.  See attached.

 

 

 

 

[rainwadj]

OK, we just replaced the graphics card in one of the workstations with a new NVIDIA RTX A4000 card, since that is listed in the Ansys installation guide and it's supposed to work for Mechanical APDL.  The problem is the same as before: I double-click on the Model line, it says "Starting Mechanical", it opens a new window, the GUI controls are shown, and the area that should show the model/arrows/ruler is black.  If I click on the + next to Geometry Imports, then click on Geometry Import (B3) under that, Mechanical crashes.