PADT Releases PeDAL: Editing Tool for Writing ANSYS Parametric Design Language (APDL) Scripts

PHOENIX, AZ – Phoenix Analysis & Design Technologies, Inc. (PADT, Inc.) a provider of mechanical engineering services, rapid manufacturing and related products, has announced the release of a new software tool aimed at expert users of the ANSYS Mechanical APDL product from ANSYS, Inc. PeDAL is a text editor that auto-completes APDL commands, does syntax highlighting, and displays ANSYS, Inc.’s help system within the same window as the editor.

The program was written by Matt Sutton at PADT simply because he got tired of looking up commands in a separate application. So he took a text editor, modified it to understand APDL syntax, merged it with a web browser, and finally built a tool that parsed the ANSYS help and created an index that could link what the user is typing in the text window with what is displayed in the help window. The end result was PeDAL (the name is a rearranging of APDL Editor), which is now used by pretty much everyone at PADT to create their macros. Key members of the ANSYS user community have also tried the tool during beta testing and the feedback has been very positive.

After being one of the beta testers, Joe Metrisin of Florida Turbine Technologies says: “PEDAL is going to be a ‘must have’ tool for any ANSYS macro writer. The auto-complete, syntax highlighting, and integration of ANSYS help system are hard to do without once you’ve tried them”
The price for PeDAL is $49, a cost that should pay for itself within a few weeks through increased productivity. To make it easier for users to decide if PeDAL will help them, anyone can download a 30 day trial version. If they like it, they can purchase the tool online with a credit card or PayPal.