Chapter 1: Installation Prerequisites for Windows

This document describes the steps necessary to correctly install and configure all ANSYS, Inc. products
on Windows platforms for Release 2020 R2. These products include:

• ANSYS Discovery

– ANSYS Discovery AIM

– ANSYS Discovery (includes SpaceClaim)

– ANSYS Discovery Live

– ANSYS Discovery SpaceClaim

• Electronics Reliability

– ANSYS Sherlock

• ANSYS Explicit Dynamics

– ANSYS Autodyn

– ANSYS LS-DYNA

• ANSYS Fluid Dynamics

– ANSYS CFD-Post only

– ANSYS CFX (includes ANSYS CFD-Post)

– ANSYS Chemkin

– ANSYS Energico

– ANSYS Model Fuel Library

– ANSYS Reaction Workbench

– ANSYS EnSight

– ANSYS FENSAP-ICE

– ANSYS Fluent (includes ANSYS CFD-Post)

– ANSYS Forte

– ANSYS TurboGrid

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Installation Prerequisites for Windows

– ANSYS Polyflow (includes ANSYS CFD-Post)

• ANSYS ICEM CFD

• ANSYS Offshore

– ANSYS Aqwa

• ANSYS Platform

– ANSYS optiSLang

• ANSYS Structural Mechanics

– ANSYS Customization Files

– ANSYS Mechanical Products (includes ANSYS Mechanical and Mechanical APDL)

– ANSYS Additive

• ANSYS Additional Tools

– ANSYS Distributed Compute Services

– ANSYS Icepak (includes ANSYS CFD-Post)

– ANSYS Remote Solve Manager Standalone Services

– ANSYS Viewer

• ANSYS Geometry Interfaces

– AutoCAD

– ACIS

– CATIA, Version 4

– CATIA, Version 5

– CATIA, Version 6

– Creo Elements/Direct Modeling

– Creo Parametric

– Inventor

– JTOpen

– NX

– Parasolid

– Solid Edge

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 – SOLIDWORKS

Note:

ANSYS Workbench is installed by default as product components to most ANSYS, Inc. products.
ANSYS Workbench is not installed as part of the products under ANSYS Additional Tools, nor
with the CFD-Post only option. ANSYS Workbench includes the following applications:

• The Mechanical Application

• DesignModeler

• Design Exploration

• Meshing

• Remote Solve Manager

• Fluent Meshing

• EKM Client

• GRANTA MI

• SpaceClaim Direct Modeler

Caution:

While SpaceClaim Direct Modeler and ANSYS SpaceClaim can be installed

on the same computer, only one of the applications can be configured
with ANSYS Workbench at any given time. Users can choose which version
to configure via the CAD Configuration Manager utility.

Because some of these applications can be run as standalone applications without ANSYS
Workbench, you will see some but not all of these listed separately as options when you
uninstall. In such cases, you will need to select those options in order to uninstall those
components.

Where supported, IGES and STEP Geometry Interfaces will be installed.

Some procedures apply only to specific products and are so noted.

Important Notice
If you want to run multiple releases of ANSYS, Inc. software, you MUST install them chronologically (for
example., Release 2020 R1 followed by Release 2020 R2). If you install an earlier release after installing
Release 2020 R2, you will encounter licensing issues that may prevent you from running any
products/releases. If you need to install an earlier release after you have already installed Release 2020
R2, you MUST uninstall Release 2020 R2, then re-install the releases in order.

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Installation Prerequisites for Windows

Summary of New and Changed Features

The following features are new or changed at Release 2020 R2. Review these items carefully.

• The ANSYS SPEOS product has been added to the ANSYS installation program.

• The ANSYS optiSLang product has been added to the ANSYS installation program.

• The ANSYS Discovery product has been added to the ANSYS installation program.

• The ANSYS GRANTA MI product has been added to the ANSYS Workbench installation.

• The IBM MPI Installation package has been removed from the ANSYS Installation program. This package
will be available as a stand-alone installation from the ANSYS Customer Portal Download Center.

1.1. System Prerequisites

ANSYS 2020 R2 is supported on the following Windows platforms and operating system levels. For up-
to-date information on hardware platforms or operating systems that have been certified, see the
Platform Support section of the ANSYS Website.

Table 1.1: Supported Windows Platforms

Processor Operating System Platform architecture Availability

(directory name)
x64 (64-bit) Windows 10 (Professional, Enterprise winx64 Download, USB
& Education), Windows Server 2016
Standard, Windows Server 2019
Standard

Note:

Home editions of Windows operating systems are not supported.

For detailed and current support information, see the Platform Support section of the ANSYS Website.

Supported Products By Platform For a complete list of products supported by each platform, see
the Platform Support by Application PDF on the Platform Support section of the ANSYS Website.

Supported Platforms for High Performance Computing See the discussions on Configuring Distrib-
uted ANSYS and Configuring ANSYS CFX Parallel for detailed information on supported platforms for
distributed computing.

1.1.1. CAD Support

The following CAD and auxiliary programs are supported on the indicated products and platforms
(where the CAD product is supported on the noted platforms). Products are:

A = Mechanical APDL
W = ANSYS Workbench

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 System Prerequisites

I = ANSYS ICEM CFD (standalone and ANSYS Workbench Readers)

Table 1.2: CAD Support by Platform

Product Windows 10 5
CATIA 4.2.4 A, W, I
CATIA V5–6R2018 A, W, I
CATIA V5 (CADNexus CAPRI CAE Gateway V3.40.0) V5–6R2016, V5–6R2017, W, I2
V5–6R2018
CATIA V6 R2018x W, I
Parasolid 30.0 A, W, I
Creo Parametric 3.0 A, W, I3
Creo Parametric 4.0 A , W, I8
Creo Parametric 5.0 A, W, I
ACIS 2018 A, W, I 1
NX 10.0
NX 11.0 A, W, I
NX 12.0 6 A, W, I
SOLIDWORKS 2018 W, I
SOLIDWORKS 2019 W, I
Solid Edge ST10 W, I
Solid Edge 2019 W, I
Inventor 2018 W, I
Inventor 2019 W, I9
AutoCAD 2018 W, I
AutoCAD 2019 W, I9
IGES 4 A, W, I
JT 10.0 W, I
STEP AP203, AP214 W, I
Creo Elements/Direct Modeling 20.0 W, I
Creo Elements/Direct Modeling 20.1 W, I
GEMS I
IDI MS8/9 I
Rhinoceros W, I
SketchUp W, I

1. For ICEM CFD standalone, ACIS 18.0.1 is the supported version for all platforms.

2. Requires V5-6R2016 or later.

3. Requires Creo Parametric 2.0 M190.

4. IGES Versions 4.0, 5.2, and 5.3 are supported.

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Installation Prerequisites for Windows

5. Professional, Education and Enterprise

6. Not supported with ANSYS Fluent

7. Requires operating system's SP1 Update KB4019990

8. Requires Creo Parametric 3.0 M060 or later.

9. Requires operating system's Anniversary Update version 1607 or higher

10. Requires operating system SP1.

Note:

View the latest supported CAD packages at ansys.com> Solutions> Solutions by Role>
IT Professionals> Platform Support> CAD Support.

1.2. Disk Space and Memory Requirements

You will need the disk space shown here for each product for installation and proper functioning. The
numbers listed here are the maximum amount of disk space you will need for each ANSYS, Inc. product.
Depending on the options selected for each product and shared product features, you may require less
disk space when installing multiple products.

Product Disk Space

ANSYS Discovery AIM 23.6 GB
ANSYS Discovery 23.1 GB
ANSYS Discovery Live 23.1 GB
ANSYS Discovery SpaceClaim 21.6 GB
ANSYS Sherlock 21.6 GB
ANSYS Autodyn 21.9 GB
ANSYS LS-DYNA 22.6 GB
ANSYS CFD-Post only 22.0 GB
ANSYS CFX 22.3 GB
ANSYS Chemkin 22.8 GB
ANSYS Energico 22.8 GB
ANSYS Model Fuel Library (Encrypted) 22.8 GB
ANSYS Reaction Workbench 22.8 GB
ANSYS EnSight 24.9 GB
ANSYS FENSAP-ICE 22.4 GB
ANSYS Fluent 22.9 GB
ANSYS Forte 25.7 GB
ANSYS Polyflow 23.9 GB
ANSYS TurboGrid 22.1 GB

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 Software Prerequisites

Product Disk Space

ANSYS ICEM CFD 22.4 GB
ANSYS Aqwa 22.0 GB
ANSYS Aqwa 22.0 GB
ANSYS optiSLang 22.6 GB
ANSYS Customization Files for User Programmable 24.7 GB
Features
ANSYS Mechanical Products 22.0 GB
ANSYS Additive 23.7 GB
Distributed Computing Services 21.7 GB
ANSYS Icepak 23.3 GB
ANSYS Remote Solve Manager Standalone Services 21.6 GB
ANSYS Viewer 21.7 GB
ANSYS Geometry Interfaces 21.8 GB
Disk space required to install all products 43.0 GB

Product installations also require an additional 500 MB of free disk space during an installation.

Memory Requirements You must have a minimum of 8 GB of memory to run product installations;
16 or 32 GB of memory is recommended.

1.3. Software Prerequisites

You must have the following software installed on your system. Administrator privileges are required
to install these files. These software prerequisites are installed automatically when you launch the
product installation. If, after installing the ANSYS products, you need to check your system for these
software prerequisites or re-install any of them at a later date, open the Product & CAD Configuration
Manager and select Check for Required Prerequisites or Install Required Prerequisites.

• A minimum version of Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.2 is required.

Note:

If your computer does not have Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.2 installed, the install-
ation program installs .NET 4.6.2 as a prerequisite and may require a system restart
after exiting the installation and before running any ANSYS products.

• Intel OpenCL runtimes when using the ANSYS Discovery AIM product

Note:

If you selected the ANSYS Discovery AIM product during installation, the OpenCL
runtimes are included as part of the prerequisite installation.

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Installation Prerequisites for Windows

• Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 Redistributable (32 and 64 bit versions)

• Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable (32 and 64 bit versions)

• Microsoft Visual C++ 2017 Redistributable (32 and 64 bit versions)

Prior to installing, you can find the executables for the software prerequisites in the root \prereq
directory of the media/download package.

1.4. Requirements for the GPU Accelerator in Mechanical APDL

Your system must meet the following requirements to use the GPU accelerator capability in Mechanical
APDL. For information on the most recently tested NVIDIA GPU cards, see the GPU Accelerator Capab-
ilities PDF on the Platform Support section of the ANSYS Website.

• The machine(s) being used for the simulation must contain at least one NVIDIA GPU card. The following
cards are recommended:

NVIDIA Tesla Series (any model)

NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000
NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000
NVIDIA Quadro GV100
NVIDIA Quadro GP100
NVIDIA Quadro P6000
NVIDIA Quadro P5000

• When using the sparse solver or eigensolvers based on the sparse direct solver (for example, Block Lanczos
or subspace), only NVIDIA GPU devices with significant double precision performance (FP64) are recom-
mended in order to achieve optimal performance. These include the following models:

NVIDIA Tesla Series P100

NVIDIA Tesla Series V100
NVIDIA Quadro GV100
NVIDIA Quadro GP100

• NVIDIA GPU devices with at least 16GB of on-card memory are recommended in order to achieve mean-
ingful acceleration for most simulations in which the GPU card can be used.

• For NVIDIA GPU cards, the driver version must be 412.16 or newer. For optimal performance on Windows,
the TCC (Tesla Compute Cluster) driver mode is recommended when using Tesla series GPU cards. Some
limitations exist when using this driver mode. Check your GPU card documentation for more details on
how to set this driver mode and the existing limitations.

• To utilize a NVIDIA GPU device that is not on the recommended list of cards, set the following environment
variable:

ANSGPU_OVERRIDE=1

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 Additional Hardware and Software Requirements

This is most beneficial when you wish to run on newer NVIDIA GPUs that were not available at the
time of release of this version of the ANSYS program. If you choose to use this environment variable,
you should ensure that the NVIDIA GPU device that you wish to use is sufficiently powerful, in terms
of both double-precision compute power and on-card memory, to achieve meaningful acceleration
for your simulation. Using this environment variable with an underpowered CPU may actually decel-
erate your simulation.

Note:

On Windows, the use of Remote Desktop may disable the use of a GPU device. Launching
Mechanical APDL through the ANSYS Remote Solve Manager (RSM) when RSM is installed
as a service may also disable the use of a GPU. In these two scenarios, the GPU accelerator
capability cannot be used. Using the TCC (Tesla Compute Cluster) driver mode, if applicable,
can circumvent this restriction.

1.5. Additional Hardware and Software Requirements

• Intel 64 / AMD64 system with the correct operating system version installed

• 8 GB of RAM (Minimum)

• 128 GB free on the hard drive is recommended

• A current default web browser must be installed to view the ANSYS internet-based help documentation.

For a complete list of supported browsers, see the Browser Support PDF on the Platform Support
section of the ANSYS Website.

For a local copy of the product documentation on your system, download an installable version from
the ANSYS Download Center. Instructions for installing the Local Help are included with the download
package.

• Discrete graphics card with the latest drivers and compatible with the supported operating systems. For
full functionality, use of a recent NVIDIA Quadro or AMD FirePro card with at least 1 GB of discrete video
memory and supporting OpenGL version 4.5 or above. Intel Iris Pro Integrated graphics has also been
used successfully.

For information on the most recently tested graphics cards, see the Graphics Cards Tested PDF on
the Platform Support section of the ANSYS Website.

For the ANSYS DiscoveryAIM product, see also ANSYS Discovery AIM Requirements (p. 10).

Note:

– Vendor Legacy Support: To be compatible, legacy GL 4.5 compliant cards should

still be within the official legacy support period of their respective graphics vendor,
and must still be receiving regular driver updates. Visit the vendor websites (AMD
and NVIDIA) to review legacy hardware lists.

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Installation Prerequisites for Windows

• A minimum screen resolution of: 1024 x 768 (4:3 aspect ratio), 1366 x 768 (16:9 aspect ratio) or 1280 x
800 (16:10 aspect ratio) with minimum 24 bit color. A higher screen resolution such as 1920x1080 (16:9)
or 1920x1200 (16:10) is strongly recommended for most applications.

Note:

– Some combinations of graphics card type, operating system, and MPEG resolution fail
to play MPEGs properly. You may be able to get normal playback results simply by
changing the MPEG settings. Alternatively, you can upgrade your graphics card.

– Ultra High Definition (4K) Graphics Cards: Use of Ultra High Definition (4K) graphics
cards may cause a number of cosmetic display issues (including enlarged or reduced
text and incorrect positioning of option labels). These issues do not affect the function-
ality of the installation program.

• Microsoft Mouse or a mouse. Most applications require a three-button mouse.

• If you use a 3Dconnexion product, ensure that you have the latest version of the drivers installed.

• Approximately twice as much swap space as memory. The amount of memory swap space on the system
may limit the size of the ANSYS model that can be created and/or solved.

• TCP/IP for the license manager (see the ANSYS Licensing Guide for more information on TCP/IP).

Although TCP/IP is included as part of the operating system, it may not be installed by default. When
TCP/IP is installed, it must be bound to a network adapter. On machines that are connected to an
internal network, TCP/IP must be bound to a network card such as an Ethernet adapter. The vast
majority of systems using TCP/IP will fall into this category. On machines that connect to the internet
or corporate intranet through a modem, TCP/IP can be bound to the Remote Access Service. Also,
the Autodial option of the Internet Options must be disabled so that the machine does not attempt
to connect to the Internet every time ANSYS is run. See the ANSYS Licensing Guide for more inform-
ation.

• Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 11 or greater is recommended for proper operation of ANSYS Workbench.
Once the correct version of IE is installed, it does not have to be your default Internet browser. After in-
stallation, simply run your preferred browser and reestablish it as the default.

• PDF reader software is required to read the installation guides and other user documentation.

To access our help system videos, ANSYS recommends that you set Windows Media Player as your
default.

1.5.1. ANSYS Discovery AIM Requirements

Minimum of OpenCL 1.2 drivers are required to make use of Exploratory Results Processing in AIM.

• Graphics driver installation for AMD, NVIDIA and Intel will either provide OpenCL by default or as an
option.

• We recommend you additionally have installed INTEL or AMD CPU drivers, these can allow us to offload
more work to unused cores.

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 Additional Hardware and Software Requirements

1.5.2. 3Dconnexion Product Support

Only specific ANSYS applications have been tested for manipulating the model (turning, zooming,
panning, etc.) with the 3Dconnexion products. While these 3Dconnexion products do provide signi-
ficantly enhanced 3D control over viewing the model, they do not function as a mouse replacement
and selection operations still require a mouse. For a complete list of 3Dconnexion products certified
with the current release of ANSYS applications, see the 3Dconnexion Devices Certification PDF on
the Platform Support section of the ANSYS Website.

To use a 3Dconnexion product with the listed products, you must download and install the appropriate
Microsoft Windows driver for your version of Windows. Refer to http://www.3dconnexion.com for
more information on using Space products and to download the appropriate drivers.

Spaceball/Connexion3D functionality in ANSYS Discovery AIM

• Only the "FIT" built in function is supported.

• Most of the other operations can be simulated by mapping Connexion functions to keyboard shortcuts
supported in ANSYS Discovery AIM. See Manipulating a Geometric Entity for more information on AIM
keyboard shortcuts.

1.5.3. ANSYS SPEOS Requirements

With the exception of the graphics adapter, the requirements for ANSYS SPEOS are the same as the
default requirements for all other ANSYS products. ANSYS SPEOS requires a minimum NVIDIA Quadro
P5200 graphics adapter with a 442.92 NVIDIA driver.

1.5.3.1. ANSYS Optical Labs Requirements

This page presents the hardware and software requirements of the ANSYS Optical Labs. The ANSYS
Optical Labs are exclusively integrated in ANSYS SPEOS installation.

The workstation should meet or exceed the following requirements.

CPU
• Processor: Intel Pentium (or AMD equivalent)

• Memory: The required memory for ANSYS Optical Labs depends on each project. 2 GB is the minimum
memory requirement but a project can require up to 32 GB for some applications (e.g. Visual Ergo-
nomics).

Graphic Adapter
Only required for 3D Energy Density Lab and Virtual Reality Lab.

Table 1.3: 3D Energy Density Lab and Virtual Reality Lab Graphics

3D Energy Density Lab Virtual Reality Lab

• NVIDIA graphics processor • AMD or NVIDIA graphics processor

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Installation Prerequisites for Windows

3D Energy Density Lab Virtual Reality Lab

• Support of OpenGL v2.1 • Support of OpenCL 1.2 minimum
minimum
• Support of OpenGL v2.1 minimum

SDK OpenCL is not required for GPU since it is included

with the drivers.

Active Stereoscopy can only be done on QUADRO and

FIREPRO cards.

GPU
AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 with the latest driver version

NVIDIA

• Geforce: GTX 480 / GTX 680 or higher for VR Lab

• Quadro: FX 5600 / K5000 or higher for VR Lab

• 442.92 driver

Note:

– If you need to downgrade driver versions, uninstall the current driver versions first
before installing the certified driver versions.

– Because of the current OpenCL limitation on GPU, the maximum usable memory is
limited to 4 GB for NVIDIA.

Additional VR Lab Requirements

Examples of OptisVR Files Memory Requirements

This table contains a list of characteristics associated to OptisVR files and the corresponding GPU
memory required for a correct display.

The following examples are for a 1920*1080 screen resolution.

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 Additional Hardware and Software Requirements

Network and Access Requirements for VR Lab in Multiscreen

• Port 51008 must be available for the OPTIS Daemon in TCP.

• Port 51004 must be available for Virtual Reality Lab in TCP.

• Port 51005 must be available for Virtual Reality Lab in multicast UDP.

• Maximal Transmission Unit value must be set to default value (1500 bytes).

SIM2 HDR monitor for Virtual Reality Lab

• HDR47 Series monitor

• SIM2 HDR monitor has to be dedicated for rendering and a standard monitor for interface.

• High Dynamic Range DVI signal connector (#11).

Note:

Press F1 key on the remote control to activate the HDRI mode. See your SIM2 HDR
display user manual for more information.

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Installation Prerequisites for Windows

1.6. Third-Party Software and other Security Considerations

The following third-party products are used as part of the installation process. In order for the installation
to work properly, you must allow access to these products.

Product Name Executable Name

Tcl tclsh.exe
Tk want.exe
Perl perl.exe
7zip 7z.exe
Microsoft .NET .net
Framework

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