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https://github.com/ansys/abbreviations

A repository holding Ansys abbreviations, acronyms and more.
https://github.com/ansys/abbreviations

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A repository holding Ansys abbreviations, acronyms and more.

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README 

        
# Glossary of abbreviations



- [Introduction](#introduction)

- [Abbreviations](#abbreviations)

  - [A - B - C](#a---b---c)

  - [D - E - F](#d---e---f)

  - [G - H - I](#g---h---i)

  - [J - K - L](#j---k---l)

  - [M - N - O](#m---n---o)

  - [P - Q - R](#p---q---r)

  - [S - T - U](#s---t---u)

  - [V - W - X](#v---w---x)

  - [Y - Z](#y---z)



## Introduction



Like all technical documentation, the documentation for PyAnsys

libraries includes lots of abbreviations, which is a general term that

also includes acronyms and initialisms.



On the first use of an abbreviation that might be unfamiliar to the

developer community, the documentation for a PyAnsys library provides

the longer word or phrase. For your convenience, this page provides a

glossary of all these abbreviations.



## Abbreviations



### A - B - C



**ACE**



Ansys Customer Excellence: The Ansys organization responsible for

ensuring customer success with Ansys products.



**ACT**



Ansys customization toolkit: The Ansys unified and consistent toolkit

for customizing and extending Ansys products.



**AEDT**



Ansys Electronics Desktop: An Ansys product with the best-in-class

solvers for electronics simulations. ACT uses easy-to-learn yet powerful

XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and IronPython programming languages.



**AI**



Artificial intelligence: A branch of computer science that deals with

building smart machines that can perceive, synthesize, and infer

information, allowing them to perform tasks that typically require human

intelligence. AI can be applied to various domains, such as expert

systems, natural language processing, speech recognition, and machine

vision. See also DL (deep learning) and ML (machine learning), which

both fall under AI.



**APDL**



APDL (Ansys Parametric Design Language): A powerful, structured

scripting language used to interact with the Ansys Mechanical solver.

See also MAPDL, an FEA (finite element analysis) program driven by APDL.



**API**



Application program interface: A set of rules that enable different apps

to communicate with each other. An API is a type of software interface,

offering a service to other pieces of software.



**BC**



Boundary condition: A place on a structure where either the external

force or the displacement is known at the start of the analysis. In this

way, BCs (boundary conditions) are where the structure interacts with

the environment either through the application of an external force or

through some restraint that is imposing a displacement. See also DOF.



**CAD**



Computer aided design: The use of computers to aid in the creation,

modification, analysis, or optimization of a design.



**CFD**



Computational fluid dynamics: A branch of fluid mechanics that uses

numerical analysis and data structures to analyze and solve problems

that involve fluid flows and related transport phenomena such as heat

and mass transfer.



**CFX**



CFX: An Ansys CFD (computational fluid dynamics) tool for designing and

optimizing turbomachinery, include pumps, turbines, compressors, fans,

and other rotating machinery.



**CI/CD**



Continuous integration/continuous delivery: The practice of automating

the integration of code changes from multiple developers into a single

codebase so that the code can be built, tested, and delivered to

production-ready environments for approval.



**CLA**



Contributor license agreement: An agreement defining the terms under

which intellectual property has been contributed to a project or

company, typically for software under an open source license.



**CORBA**



Common Object Request Broker Architecture: A standard designed to

facilitate the communication of systems that are deployed on diverse

platforms. CORBA enables collaboration between systems on different

operating systems, programming languages, and computing hardware.



**CRLF**



Carriage return, line feed: The invisible characters that the Windows

operating system uses to denote line endings in files.



### D - E - F



**DevEco**



Developer Ecosystem: The name of the Ansys team responsible for the

[Ansys Developer](https://developer.ansys.com/) portal.



**DL**



Deep learning: A subset of ML (machine learning), where artificial

neural networks\--algorithms modeled to work like the human

brain\--learn from large amounts of data. Deep learning is what drives

many AI (artificial intelligence) technologies.



**DNS**



Domain name system: A hierarchical and distributed naming system for

computers, services, and other resources on the internet or other IP

(internet protocol) networks. Just like a telephone directory translates

names to phone numbers, DNS translates domain names to IP addresses,

which are numerical labels assigned to every device connected to a

computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.



**DOF**



Degrees of freedom: The minimum number of independent parameters that

are required to define the position of a rigid body in space. BCs

(boundary conditions) are typically expressed in terms of applicable

degrees of freedom.



**DPF**



Data Processing Framework: An Ansys product that provides numerical

simulation users and engineers with a toolbox for accessing and

transforming simulation data. With DPF, you can perform complex

preprocessing or postprocessing of large amounts of simulation data

within a simulation workflow.



**DRY**



Don\'t repeat yourself: A principle of software development aimed at

reducing repetition of software patterns, replacing them with

abstractions or using data normalization to avoid redundancy.



**EOL**



End-of-line: One or more invisible characters that denote line endings

in files. Each operating system manages EOL characters in its own way.

Windows uses the original DOS convention of a CRLF (carriage return plus

a line feed), while Linux and Mac use only a LF (line feed).



**FEA**



Finite element analysis: A simulation of any given physical phenomenon

using the numerical technique called FEM (finite element method).

Engineers use FEA software to reduce the number of physical prototypes

and experiments and to optimize components in their design phases to

develop better products more quickly and less expensively.



**FEM**



Finite element method: A popular method for numerically solving

differential equations arising in engineering and mathematical modeling.

Typical problem areas of interest include the traditional fields of

structural analysis, heat transfer, fluid flow, mass transport, and

electromagnetic analysis.



**FSW**



Friction stir welding: A solid-state joining process that uses a

non-consumable tool to join two facing workpieces without melting the

workpiece material. The [Friction stir welding (FSW)

simulation](https://examples.mapdl.docs.pyansys.com/technology_showcase_examples/techdemo-28/ex_28-tecfricstir.html)

example in the PyMAPDL documentation shows how to simulate the FSW

process.



### G - H - I



**gRPC**



gRPC: A high performance, open source, universal RPC (remote procedure

call) framework. gRPC can efficiently connect services in and across

data centers with pluggable support for load balancing, tracing, health

checking, and authentication.



**GUI**



Graphical user interface: The system of interactive visual components

that computer software provides for interacting with it. Such visual

components include windows, buttons, menus, and icons.



**HTTP**



Hypertext transfer protocol: A protocol for transferring data between a

browser and a web server, providing the foundation of data exchange on

the internet.



**HTTPS**



Hypertext transfer protocol secure: An extension of HTTP that uses

encryption for transferring data between a browser and a web server so

that sensitive data can be safely exchanged on the internet.



**ID**



Identifier: A sequence of characters used to identify or refer to a

piece of data or a process in code.



**IGES**



Initial Graphics Exchange Specification: A vendor-neutral file format

that allows the digital exchange of geometry data and CAD models among

CAD (computer-aided design) systems.



**IP**



Intellectual property: A category of property that includes intangible

creations of the human intellect. Of the many types of IP, the best

known are patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets.



Internet protocol: The network layer communications protocol in the

Internet protocol suite for relaying datagrams across network

boundaries. Its routing function enables internet working and essentially

establishes the internet.



### J - K - L



**JSON**



JavaScript Object Notation: A lightweight data format for storing and

transporting data. JSON is easy for humans to read and write, and it is

easy for machines to parse and generate. JSON is often used when data is

sent from a server to a web page.



**LF**



Line feed: The invisible character that the Linux and Mac operating

systems use to denote line endings in files.



### M - N - O



**MEMS** Microelectromechanical systems: Miniaturized devices

incorporating both electronic and mechanical components. A MEM device is

made up of components between 1 and 100 micrometers in size. The

[PyMAPDL

documentation](https://mapdl.docs.pyansys.com/version/stable/index.html)

references MEMs on multiple occasions.



**ML**



Machine learning: The use and development of computer systems that can

learn and adapt without following explicit instructions, by using

algorithms and statistical models to analyze and draw inferences from

patterns. ML is a data technology that falls under AI (artificial

intelligence).



**MAPDL**



Mechanical APDL (Ansys Parametric Design Language): A finite element

analysis program driven by APDL. APDL and MAPDL can be used for many

tasks, ranging from creating geometries for analysis to setting up

sophisticated solver settings for highly complex analyses.



**OS**



Operating system: System software that controls and manages the hardware

and the other software on a computer. Every computer must have at least

one OS. Popular operating systems include Microsoft Windows, Linux, and

Apple macOS.



**OSS**



Open source software: Computer software that is released under a license

in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study,

change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and

for any purpose. Open source software may be developed in a

collaborative public manner.



### P - Q - R



**PCB**



Printed circuit board: An assembly that mechanically supports and

electrically connects layers of conductors, metal interconnects,

insulators, and other components such as diodes and resistors.



**PCBN**



Polycrystalline cubic boron nitride: A super-abrasive material that is

used to make cutting tool for machining extremely hard materials. This

tool is used in FSW (friction stir welding).



**PEP8**



Python Enhancement (or Enterprise) Proposal 8: The [style

guide](https://pep8.org/) for Python code. This style guide helps Python

programmers write consistent, readable, and maintainable code.



**PIM**



Product Instance Management: The PIM API is a gRPC API, enabling both

library and app developers to start a product in a remote environment

and communicate with its API. The PIM API is not intended to manage

stateless services, to be a job management system, or a fully featured

service orchestration API. Its purpose is to expose a minimum feature

set for managing service-oriented apps.



**PMM**



Product marketing manager: The title of an Ansys person who can approve

an open source project for an Ansys product for public release.



**PR**



Pull request: A notification to a development team that a branch or fork

of some code has changes that are ready to be reviewed. A PR allows the

team to discuss, comment, and approve the proposed changes before they

are merged into the main repository.



**PSD**



Power spectral density: A type of frequency-domain analysis in vibration

analysis that is a measure of a signal\'s power content versus

frequency. The [Dynamic simulation of a printed circuit board

assembly](https://examples.mapdl.docs.pyansys.com/technology_showcase_examples/techdemo-20/ex_20-tecPCB.html)

example in the PyMAPDL documentation shows how to import an existing FEA

(finite element analysis) model and run a modal and PSD analysis.



**PyPA**



Python Package Authority: A working group that maintains a core set of

software projects used in Python packaging. The software developed

through the PyPA is used to package, share, and install Python software

and to interact with indexes of downloadable Python software such as

PyPI, the Python Package Index.



**PyPI**



Python Package Index: A repository of software for the Python

programming language. PyPI helps you find and install software developed

and shared by the Python community.



**REST**



Representational state transfer: A software architectural style that

provides interoperability between computer systems over the internet.

REST is based on simple and standardized protocols, like HTTP, which is

the backbone of the internet. It emphasizes a stateless client-server

interaction, meaning each request should contain all the necessary

information to be understood by the server, without relying on any

previous interactions. This simplicity and standardization make it easy

for different systems to communicate and exchange data effectively.



**RPC**



Remote procedure call: A powerful software communication protocol used

in distributed client-server programs. An RPC is a request message

initiated by a client program to a known remote server to execute a

specified procedure with supplied parameters. The remote server sends a

response to the client, and the app continues its process. RPC is more

efficient than REST in terms of speed, memory, and payload size.

Typically, the use of REST should be limited to short messages

transferred via JSON files, and gRPC should be used for large data

transfers and bidirectional streaming.



**RMI**



Remote method invocation: An API that allows an object to invoke a

method on an object that exits in another address space, which could be

on the same machine or on a remote machine. The Java RMI is the

object-oriented equivalent of an RPC (remote procedure) for Java, with

support for direct transfer of serialized Java classes and distributed

garbage-collection.



**RST**



Result structural: A proprietary file format in which Ansys Mechanical

writes simulation results from a structural analysis.



reStructured Text: A file format and markup language that software

developers and technical documentation writers use to produce

documentation for Python-based software programs.



**RTH**



Result thermal: A proprietary file format in which Ansys Mechanical

writes simulation results for a thermal analysis.



### S - T - U



**SI units**



Système International units: The modern form of the metric system and

the world\'s most widely used system of measurement. It is the only

system of measurement with an official status in nearly every country in

the world and is employed in science, technology, industry, and everyday

commerce.



**SSH**



Secure shell protocol: A cryptographic network protocol for operating

network services securely over an unsecured network. Its most notable

applications are remote login and command-line execution.



**TDD**



Test-driven development: A software development process that relies on

software requirements being converted to test cases before software is

fully developed. Software development is then tracked by repeatedly

testing the software against all use cases.



**UDF**



User-defined function. Custom logic for a computation defined by a user

that can then be reused multiple types in the user environment. Python

UDFs are scalar functions that return a value for each row passed to

them. In Python, UDFs can be applied directly in the dataframes and SQL

data databases.



### V - W - X



**VPN**



Virtual private network: A secure connection from your computer, smart

phone, or tablet to a server on the internet that allows you to browse

the internet using this computer\'s internet connection. A VPN provides

hides your IP (internet protocol) address and encrypts your internet

connection to provide an extra layer of privacy and anonymity.



**VS Code**



Visual Studio Code: The lightweight but powerful source code editor made

by Microsoft with the Electron Framework. It is available for Windows,

Linux, and macOS. VS Code supports debugging, syntax highlighting,

intelligent code completion, snippets, code refactoring, and embedded

Git. It can be used with a variety of programming languages including C,

C#, C++, Fortran, Go, Java, JavaScript, Node.js, Python, Rust, and

Julia.



**VTK**



Visualization Toolkit: Open source software for 3D computer graphics,

image processing, and scientific visualization.



**WSL2**



Windows Subsystem for Linux: A Windows development environment that

enables running a GNU/Linux environment, including most command-line

tools, utilities, and apps, directly on Windows, unmodified, without the

overhead of a traditional virtual machine or dual-boot setup.



**XML**



eXtensible Markup Language: A markup language and file format for

storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. XML defines a

set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both

human-readable and machine-readable.



### Y - Z



(No Y or Z entries exist presently.)