1. Industry background and current status of ANSA usage: the problem of invisible resources under high-frequency pre-processing tasks
In the automotive, aerospace, construction machinery, electronics and other industries, ANSA has become a mainstream pre-processing tool. Engineers rely on ANSA to perform:
- Pre-processing modeling (geometric repair, shelling, dividing features)- Mesh generation (structure, CFD, NVH)- Mesh Quality Criteria- Vehicle/system level model assembly- Checking, Boolean operations, attribute assignment- Batch script processing (Python/BETA Automation) ANSA’s usage pattern has strong engineering characteristics:
- Open the software and it will be occupied for a long timeLarge model processing often takes a long time.2. An engineer may work on multiple models at the same timePermits tend to remain “occupied” for long periods of time.3. Projects explode periodicallyA large number of models are processed at the same time before project nodes (such as design freeze and working condition submission).4. Script tasks may take a long time to run or hangResulting in the license not being released. In the absence of visual monitoring, companies often encounter:
- ANSA prompts that the license is insufficient, but it is not known who holds it- Engineers ask each other if they “forgot to close the software”- Idle occupation (not operating but occupying permission) cannot be recognized- Frequent resource conflicts occur during project peak periods- Management cannot judge whether capacity should be expanded or processes optimized- Distributed team (headquarters + branch + overseas) usage is completely invisible The ANSA authorization pool has become a typical “critical but uncontrollable resource”.
2. Typical challenges faced by enterprises in ANSA authorization management
1. Pain points from a technical perspective
- The floating license is frequently full and the software cannot be started.- Unable to see who is occupying and which Feature is occupied?- Engineers will open ANSA and switch to Excel/Outlook, resulting in Long Idle– Script automation tasks hang and occupy resources- Long processing time for large models → License locked for a long time- Different business lines (structure/NVH/CFD) compete for the same licensing pool
2. Pain points from management perspective
- Authorized use behavior cannot be quantified, and annual budget planning cannot be carried out- Conflicts were frequent during peak periods of the project and the cause of the bottleneck could not be found.- Unclear allocation of resources between departments (e.g. How much is occupied by CFD? How much is occupied by NVH?)- Lack of trend data, unable to determine whether expansion is needed- Usage status is completely invisible when collaborating across regions and multiple teams- Unable to identify the waste caused by abnormal occupancy These challenges essentially stem from:ANSA usage behavior is “black box” and lacks a visual data layer.
3. How Nodexel intervenes and builds the visual management system used by ANSA
Without changing the ANSA software itself and without affecting the daily operations of engineers,Nodexel builds a “real-time, granular, quantifiable” ANSA license monitoring system for enterprises.
1. Real-time monitoring of ANSA license occupancy status
Nodexel can render in real time:
- Engineers currently using ANSA- Department/project team- Occupied Feature type- Number of used/remaining licenses- Occupation time- Whether in Active or Idle state- Current load trend of the authorization pool (whether it is close to full load) This allows enterprises to “see” ANSA’s true workload for the first time.
2. Identify Idle users and occupation behavior
Nodexel will automatically determine:
- Are engineers performing real operations?- Whether there is no mouse, no grid processing, and no editing action for a long time- Whether to hang in the background purely Idle sessions will be specially marked to facilitate administrators to analyze whether there is a waste of resources.
3. Automatically detect abnormal occupation and perform gentle release
For example:
- Script hangs- Process closed but permission not released- ANSA runs silently but no one operates it Gentle recycling can be performed according to corporate policies (without affecting normal task execution).
4. Department-level and project-level usage time statistics
Enterprises can quickly view:
- Proportion of ANSA resource usage by different teams- The authorization pressure of a certain project before the node- Is there competition for resources across departments?- The actual demand of the engineering team Resolve the management dispute of “who uses more?”
5. Visualize peak and trough periods
include:
- Daily usage curve (Morning Peak / Afternoon Peak)- Project cycle peak analysis chart- Quarterly Licensing Pressure Trends- Distribution when used by multiple teams at the same time This allows companies to plan resources in advance rather than waiting passively.
6. Support cross-regional and multi-team unified monitoring
For example:
- Headquarters- branch factory- Overseas R&D Center- Outsourcing team All usage can be viewed on the same platform.
4. Direct management benefits brought by data insights
After actual deployment, enterprises usually see the following quantifiable improvements:
1. License utilization increased by 20%–45%
Reduce idle and abnormal occupancy, and use authorization more for “effective operations”.
2. Idle occupancy decreased by 30%–60%
Significantly fewer engineers forget to turn off ANSA.
3. Reduced waiting time for licenses
The inability to open ANSA during peak periods has been significantly reduced.
4. Make accurate authorization expansion decisions
Determine whether configuration needs to be added or optimized based on data, rather than based on feelings.
5. Improved project delivery efficiency
The pre-processing tasks are smoother and the impact of the waiting process on the nodes is reduced.
5. Real usage scenarios of engineers
An automobile company enters the pre-processing peak period at 9 a.m. on Wednesday.Engineer Xiao Wang needs to open ANSA to process the body model, but the software pops up:
“License Not Available” The project team is rushing to submit work status next week, and various departments are asking each other:
- “Did the CFD team use too much?”- “Did anyone forget to close?”- “Is the script stuck?” IT cannot locate it quickly and can only investigate in sequence. After enabling Nodexel:
- Identified 2 engineers idle for more than 80 minutes- Detected 1 weekend hung script still taking license- NVH group imports models in batches, causing instantaneous spikes- CFD group occupancy is well below guesstimates The administrator quickly released the invalid occupation, ANSA was immediately available, and Xiao Wang successfully completed the grid processing. The whole process is natural and real, and is one of the most frequent scenarios in the daily work of the CAE team.
6. Summary: Nodexel makes the use of ANSA visual, manageable and optimizable
The role of Nodexel is not to exaggerate how much efficiency it can improve, but to:
- Build a transparent ANSA usage data system for enterprises- Empower engineering management to truly understand sources of resource pressure- Reduce resource conflicts among pre-processing teams during peak periods- Optimize CAE working links and shorten waiting time- Increase the ROI of ANSA software in your enterprise- Support enterprises to move towards digital engineering management When ANSA’s authorization pool is no longer a “black box”,Engineering team collaboration efficiency, project stability, and budget decisions will all be significantly improved.
