Automating Ansys Mechanical Reports: A Guide to the EDRMedeso Report Generator
You’ve run the model. The numbers look good. And then reality hits, now comes the report: screenshots, captions, materials’ tables, neat headings, a cover with the right document number, the whole thing laid out in your company Word template. It’s the part of engineering that everyone needs but hates and no one has time for.
That’s exactly the gap the EDRMedeso Report Generator fills, fully compatible with Ansys Mechanical. Think of it as an auto-assistant for reporting: you keep working the way you already do, tagging objects, creating figures, writing brief notes, and all the while the app handles the tedious stitching and formatting, then exports a Word or HTML report that actually looks like it was crafted on purpose.
Rather than listing features, let’s walk through how it feels to use, and why teams end up saving hours on every iteration.
Start with the report you wish you had
Most of us open Word last, when energy is lowest. Here, you begin in Mechanical by adding a small “Report Settings” panel. Give the document a title and subject, drop in author/reviewer names, and choose your company Word template. That template can be branded however you like, with, for example a cover page, table styles, color accents, and the app maps your metadata into the proper Word fields (document number, revision, prepared-for, approval date, opportunity ID, and so on) so those boxes fill themselves without any intervention.
You’ll set a couple of preferences that pay off later: the default figure width to match your margins, image background (white or graded), and the resolution you want by default (screen, normal, or high). From then on, those images will arrive nicely sized and consistent.
Tell the report what matters—by doing your normal work
There’s no separate “report model”. You simply tag what you want included as you move through the tree: Geometry, Mesh, Loads/Supports, Connections, Solution items, Results, even Materials. A quick filter toggles the tree to show only the pieces you’ve marked, which is a handy checklist when you’re under pressure to deliver to a strict deadline.
Add annotations directly on figures (callouts, labels, quick notes) and write short comments wherever narrative helps: assumptions, acceptance criteria, “why we changed the mesh,” that kind of thing. A couple of light touch formatting tricks means the text reads like a report, not a model dump.
When you’re unsure how a section will render, the Worksheet Preview gives you a fast, in-context peek. It’s especially useful for the Materials area, which now includes not only summaries but also nonlinear properties and material assignments, all aligned with your template’s table styles.
Draft, tweak, refresh, all without starting over again
Click Draft and the app exports a live Word document using your template. This is your chance to do gentle updates: rename “Bearing Load” to “Pulley Load,” emphasize the introduction, cut a sentence, move a paragraph. When you save and close, hit Refresh back in Mechanical. Those edits roll back into the model-linked structure (including figure names), so you won’t lose them on the next export.
Change your mind about a contour range? Rotate to a named view so every figure shares the same angle? Switch a graded background to white for publication? Update in Mechanical, press Update Figures, then flip back to Word and Update Images in one mouse press. No manual screenshots. No guessing at widths.
Built for what you actually model
Real projects rarely stop at one analysis. The Report Generator happily walks multiple tracks: thermal first with thermal results, then static structural with its results, then whatever else you’ve included, each section introduced with the right heading and consistent captions. If your project spans several Workbench systems, you can export each and either compile a master document (figures remain update-able) or attach the others as an Appendix for a single deliverable.
In the background, the app speaks fluent Ansys Mechanical . Recent updates have expanded coverage across Symmetry, Joints, Mesh metrics, Fracture, Bolt Tool results, and a useful ability to reference the system folder name. Materials got an update too: alongside the classic summary, you can output nonlinear tabs and the exact assignments used, perfect for audits and handovers.
Your template, your brand, easily
Most teams already have a Word template they’re expected to use. The Report Generator leans into that. It supports macro-enabled .dotm templates with a few smart macros inside, so figure updates and field mappings simply just work. Point the app at your template once, map your document properties to your field names, and you’re ready to go. When you need to fine-tune the look, you do it where you always have, in Word.
There’s a small but satisfying detail here: if your brand color isn’t in a default list, you can still lock it in precisely by pasting the exact color code into the app’s preferences. That way, table headers and figure captions match your identity every time without manual styling.
Scale without fragility
Parametric design, long solves, distributed teams. The app behaves when you refresh it. Figures can be generated with white or graded backgrounds independent of whatever theme you prefer onscreen. You can run in read-only mode by default and only check out a license when you’re ready to export, useful on shared machines. And because the whole thing is license-managed in the Cloud, it runs well on local laptops and VDI/cloud desktops (Azure, Rescale) alike without a local license server.
If you’ve ever had a report fail because a view didn’t match, you’ll appreciate this: rely on Named Views in Mechanical. Set them once, reuse them across figures, and your images will align perfectly.
Real workflows
Imagine you’ve got a thermal/structural assembly. You tag the geometry and mesh, add a geometry view with annotations, include fixed supports and loads, and mark the solution results that stakeholders expect (temperature, equivalent stress, displacement). Materials and assignments relate with a click. A few comments capture context, for example ambient temperature, convection assumptions, acceptance criteria.
You preview the Materials section to confirm the nonlinear curves render correctly. Draft to Word, add a line to the introduction, rename a load, and tidy the conclusion. Back in Mechanical, you decide the displacement plot needs a capped range and a white background. Update, switch to Word, refresh images. Completed.
A second iteration takes minutes, not afternoons because the report has become a living companion to your model, not a separate component that you rebuild every time there’s a change
The small touches that add up
Some further key features that all contribute to making the Report Generator app a ‘must have’ tool include:
- Multiple figures per object let you show an overview plus a detailed inset without duplicate work.
- Static Image captures a figure as a fixed snapshot when you need a “don’t change this again” moment for review boards.
- Caption naming follows your template’s exact style names, so cross-refs read cleanly and consistently.
- HTML output is there when you want a lightweight, quick-share version for browsers or internal portals.
Why teams find Report Generator App indispensable
Because it moves reporting out of the “final hurdle” category and into the “already in progress” column. You get:
- Speed: first drafts in minutes, update cycles in seconds.
- Consistency: one house style across many engineers.
- Traceability: the document mirrors the model tree.
- Scalability: single studies, multi-analysis, or multi-system, same workflow.
- Professionalism: a report that looks like collaborative work from the design and analysis teams
If you’ve been living with a patchwork of screenshots, manual captions, and brittle templates, the EDRMedeso Report Generator is a small change that unlocks massive improvement. Keep focusing on the engineering and let the report fall naturally out of the work you’re already doing, formatted, branded, and ready to send.
When you’re ready, we can help map your template, set sensible defaults, and coach your team through the first project. After that, you’ll wonder how the report ever became the bottleneck in the first place!
Find out more about Report Generator
