How to Find Material ID (Matid) for Geometry Objects in ANSYS Workbench-allcae

Good morning everyone, this is Shuige. Today we’ll discuss how to get the Matid of geometry objects in Workbench.

Whether in APDL or Workbench, users need to assign a material number to geometry objects to index material properties for subsequent analysis. In APDL, this process requires manual specification by the user. In Workbench, materials are defined through Engineering Data, and each material’s matid assignment is completed automatically.

By default, when Mechanical creates input files, the program assigns a unique material number to each body of the model, regardless of what material is assigned to that body/part. In some cases, users may need to know the matid of various components.

For example, in submodeling analysis, when we need to specify the source body to import displacements from the global model into the submodel, this process is completed by entering the matid associated with the source body, as shown below.

Another example is when users need to insert APDL command snippets during the solution phase and need to reference certain material numbers.

So how do we know the Matid corresponding to a geometry object?

Unfortunately, the current Mechanical interface does not provide display of material numbers (hopefully this feature can be added in the future; currently, an ACT extension can also achieve this). Note that if users enable Beta mode, there is an ID in the geometry details panel—this ID represents the current geometry object’s ID, not the Matid.

To know the Matid corresponding to each geometry object in advance, users can temporarily generate a dat file during operation, then search and view it in the dat file.

The dat file is the solution input file, which is finally submitted to MAPDL for calculation. It can be exported by clicking Solution > Tools > Write Input Files.

Open the dat file with a text editor, press Ctrl+F to open search, and enter the geometry object name from the left structure tree to find the corresponding material number.

You can also scroll directly to the model Summary to view it.

Note that all Chinese settings in the interface display as spaces in the solution file, so please set everything to English for easy identification!

The format is as follows:

!Part 1, Structural Steel, matid, 1

!Part 2, Structural Steel, matid, 2

!Part 3, Structural Steel, matid, 3

!Part 4, Structural Steel, matid, 4

!Part 5, Structural Steel, matid, 5

!Part 6, Structural Steel, matid, 6

The above is the method for finding geometry object Matids. Students who need it might want to give it a try!

For simulation business cooperation, please click: Business Services

For more original courses by Shuige, please click: Shuige’s Original Course List – Up to September 2025