Unable to plot geometry

[mcMunich]

🤓 Before submitting the issue

• I have visited the Troubleshooting section.
• I have searched among the existing issues.
• I am using a Python virtual environment.
• I am using the latest version of PyMAPDL and its dependencies (fully updated virtual environment). You can update them using pip install --upgrade --upgrade-strategy eager ansys-mapdl-core in your activated virtual environment.

🔍 Description of the bug

Tried to run the bracket example and the script dies at the plot commands (aplot,lplot, etc).
https://mapdl.docs.pyansys.com/version/stable/examples/gallery_examples/00-mapdl-examples/bracket_static.html#sphx-glr-examples-gallery-examples-00-mapdl-examples-bracket-static-py

I tried some others and none of the standard plot commands used while building the model seem to run.

🕵️ Steps To Reproduce

from ansys.mapdl.core import launch_mapdl
x=1000
jobName = "box"  # optional
mapdl = launch_mapdl(jobname=jobName)
mapdl.prep7()
mapdl.blc4(0, 0,x, x, x)
#mapdl.aplot() # fails
#mapdl.lplot() # fails

#### Elements and meshing
mapdl.et(1, "SOLID186")
mapdl.type(1)
mapdl.keyopt(1, 2, 1)
mapdl.vmesh("ALL")
mapdl.eplot()

mapdl.exit()

💻 Which Operating System are you using?

Windows

🐍 Which Python version are you using?

3.13

💾 Which MAPDL version are you using?

25.1

📝 PyMAPDL Report

from ansys.mapdl import core as pymapdl
print(pymapdl.Report())

PyMAPDL Software and Environment Report

Packages Requirements

---

Core packages

ansys.mapdl.core : 0.70.1
numpy : 2.3.1
platformdirs : 4.3.8
scipy : 1.16.0
grpc : Package not found
ansys.api.mapdl.v0 : Package not found
ansys.mapdl.reader : 0.55.1
google.protobuf : Package not found
ansys-math-core : 0.2.4

Optional packages

matplotlib : 3.10.3
pyvista : 0.45.2
pyiges : 0.3.2
tqdm : 4.67.1
ansys-tools-visualization_interface: 0.10.0
pandas : Package not found

Ansys Installation

---

Version Location

242 C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v242
251 C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v251
252 C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v252

Ansys Environment Variables

---

ANSYS242_DIR C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v242\ANSYS
ANSYS251_DIR C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v251\ANSYS
ANSYS252_DIR C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v252\ANSYS
ANSYSEM_ROOT251 C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v251\AnsysEM
ANSYSLIC_DIR C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\Shared Files\Licensing
ANSYSLMD_LICENSE_FILE 1055@127.0.0.1
ANSYS_OPTISLANG_VERBOSE_LEVEL 1
AWP_LOCALE242 en-us
AWP_LOCALE251 en-us
AWP_LOCALE252 en-us
AWP_ROOT242 C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v242
AWP_ROOT251 C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v251
AWP_ROOT252 C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v252
CADOE_LIBDIR232 C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v232\CommonFiles\Language\en-us
CADOE_LIBDIR242 C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v242\CommonFiles\Language\en-us
CADOE_LIBDIR251 C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v251\CommonFiles\Language\en-us
CADOE_LIBDIR252 C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v252\CommonFiles\Language\en-us

📝 Installed packages

Package Version

---

aiohappyeyeballs 2.6.1
aiohttp 3.12.13
aiosignal 1.3.2
alabaster 1.0.0
ansys-api-mapdl 0.5.2
ansys-api-platform-instancemanagement 1.1.3
ansys-mapdl-core 0.70.1
ansys-mapdl-reader 0.55.1
ansys-math-core 0.2.4
ansys-platform-instancemanagement 1.1.2
ansys-tools-path 0.7.3
ansys-tools-visualization-interface 0.10.0
anyio 4.9.0
appdirs 1.4.4
argon2-cffi 25.1.0
argon2-cffi-bindings 21.2.0
arrow 1.3.0
astroid 3.3.10
asttokens 3.0.0
async-lru 2.0.5
asyncssh 2.21.0
atomicwrites 1.4.1
attrs 25.3.0
autopep8 2.0.4
babel 2.17.0
bcrypt 4.3.0
beautifulsoup4 4.13.4
binaryornot 0.4.4
black 25.1.0
bleach 6.2.0
certifi 2025.6.15
cffi 1.17.1
chardet 5.2.0
charset-normalizer 3.4.2
click 8.2.1
cloudpickle 3.1.1
colorama 0.4.6
comm 0.2.2
contourpy 1.3.2
cookiecutter 2.6.0
cryptography 45.0.4
cycler 0.12.1
debugpy 1.8.14
decorator 5.2.1
defusedxml 0.7.1
Deprecated 1.2.18
diff-match-patch 20241021
dill 0.4.0
docstring-to-markdown 0.17
docutils 0.21.2
executing 2.2.0
fastjsonschema 2.21.1
flake8 7.1.2
fonttools 4.58.4
fqdn 1.5.1
frozenlist 1.7.0
geomdl 5.4.0
grpcio 1.73.0
h11 0.16.0
httpcore 1.0.9
httpx 0.28.1
idna 3.10
imagesize 1.4.1
importlib_metadata 8.7.0
inflection 0.5.1
intervaltree 3.1.0
ipykernel 6.29.5
ipython 8.37.0
ipywidgets 8.1.7
isoduration 20.11.0
isort 6.0.1
jaraco.classes 3.4.0
jaraco.context 6.0.1
jaraco.functools 4.2.1
jedi 0.19.2
jellyfish 1.2.0
Jinja2 3.1.6
json5 0.12.0
jsonpointer 3.0.0
jsonschema 4.24.0
jsonschema-specifications 2025.4.1
jupyter_client 8.6.3
jupyter_core 5.8.1
jupyter-events 0.12.0
jupyter-lsp 2.2.5
jupyter_server 2.16.0
jupyter_server_proxy 4.4.0
jupyter_server_terminals 0.5.3
jupyterlab 4.4.3
jupyterlab_pygments 0.3.0
jupyterlab_server 2.27.3
jupyterlab_widgets 3.0.15
keyring 25.6.0
kiwisolver 1.4.8
markdown-it-py 3.0.0
MarkupSafe 3.0.2
matplotlib 3.10.3
matplotlib-inline 0.1.7
mccabe 0.7.0
mdurl 0.1.2
mistune 3.1.3
more-itertools 10.7.0
msgpack 1.1.1
multidict 6.5.1
mypy_extensions 1.1.0
nbclient 0.10.2
nbconvert 7.16.6
nbformat 5.10.4
nest-asyncio 1.6.0
notebook_shim 0.2.4
numpy 2.3.1
numpydoc 1.9.0
overrides 7.7.0
packaging 25.0
pandocfilters 1.5.1
parso 0.8.4
pathspec 0.12.1
pexpect 4.9.0
pickleshare 0.7.5
pillow 11.2.1
pip 24.3.1
platformdirs 4.3.8
pluggy 1.6.0
pooch 1.8.2
prometheus_client 0.22.1
prompt_toolkit 3.0.51
propcache 0.3.2
protobuf 4.25.8
psutil 7.0.0
ptyprocess 0.7.0
pure_eval 0.2.3
pyansys-tools-versioning 0.6.0
pycodestyle 2.12.1
pycparser 2.22
pydocstyle 6.3.0
pyflakes 3.2.0
PyGithub 2.6.1
Pygments 2.19.2
pyiges 0.3.2
PyJWT 2.10.1
pylint 3.3.7
pylint-venv 3.0.4
pyls-spyder 0.4.0
PyNaCl 1.5.0
pyparsing 3.2.3
PyQt5 5.15.11
PyQt5-Qt5 5.15.2
PyQt5_sip 12.17.0
PyQtWebEngine 5.15.7
PyQtWebEngine-Qt5 5.15.2
python-dateutil 2.9.0.post0
python-json-logger 3.3.0
python-lsp-black 2.0.0
python-lsp-jsonrpc 1.1.2
python-lsp-server 1.12.2
python-slugify 8.0.4
pytoolconfig 1.3.1
pyuca 1.2
pyvista 0.45.2
pywin32 310
pywin32-ctypes 0.2.3
pywinpty 2.0.15
PyYAML 6.0.2
pyzmq 27.0.0
QDarkStyle 3.2.3
qstylizer 0.2.4
QtAwesome 1.4.0
qtconsole 5.6.1
QtPy 2.4.3
referencing 0.36.2
requests 2.32.4
rfc3339-validator 0.1.4
rfc3986-validator 0.1.1
rich 14.0.0
roman-numerals-py 3.1.0
rope 1.13.0
rpds-py 0.25.1
rtree 1.4.0
scipy 1.16.0
scooby 0.10.1
Send2Trash 1.8.3
setuptools 80.9.0
simpervisor 1.0.0
six 1.17.0
sniffio 1.3.1
snowballstemmer 3.0.1
sortedcontainers 2.4.0
soupsieve 2.7
Sphinx 8.2.3
sphinxcontrib-applehelp 2.0.0
sphinxcontrib-devhelp 2.0.0
sphinxcontrib-htmlhelp 2.1.0
sphinxcontrib-jsmath 1.0.1
sphinxcontrib-qthelp 2.0.0
sphinxcontrib-serializinghtml 2.0.0
spyder 6.0.7
spyder-kernels 3.0.5
stack-data 0.6.3
superqt 0.7.5
tabulate 0.9.0
terminado 0.18.1
text-unidecode 1.3
textdistance 4.6.3
three-merge 0.1.1
tinycss2 1.4.0
tomlkit 0.13.3
tornado 6.5.1
tqdm 4.67.1
traitlets 5.14.3
trame 3.10.2
trame-client 3.9.1
trame-common 1.0.0
trame-server 3.4.2
trame-vtk 2.9.0
trame-vuetify 3.0.1
types-python-dateutil 2.9.0.20250516
typing_extensions 4.14.0
ujson 5.10.0
uri-template 1.3.0
urllib3 2.5.0
vtk 9.4.2
watchdog 6.0.0
wcwidth 0.2.13
webcolors 24.11.1
webencodings 0.5.1
websocket-client 1.8.0
websockets 15.0.1
whatthepatch 1.0.7
widgetsnbextension 4.0.14
wrapt 1.17.2
wslink 2.3.4
yapf 0.43.0
yarl 1.20.1
zipp 3.23.0

📝 Logger output file

Show the logger output file.

# PASTE HERE THE CONTENT OF THE LOGGER OUTPUT FILE.

[mikerife]

@mcMunich which version of mapdl was started up? Works for me:

[mikerife]

@mcMunich whoops, forgot I had a prior version set to be used....updated to 25.1 and still works

[mcMunich]

i used ansys v242 and python 3.12
I generated a new venv to test and it fails with a new install.

Mapdl

PyMAPDL Version: 0.70.1
Interface: grpc
Product: Ansys Mechanical Enterprise
MAPDL Version: 24.2
Running on: localhost
(127.0.0.1)

Also fails w/251.
Mapdl

PyMAPDL Version: 0.70.1
Interface: grpc
Product: Ansys Mechanical Enterprise
MAPDL Version: 25.1
Running on: localhost
(127.0.0.1)

[germa89]

This is due to the latest update in ansys-tools-visualization-interface:

To downgrade it latest working version (0.9.1) do:

pip install "ansys-tools-visualization-interface==0.9.1"

I have to figure out if I want to skip that version or not, since we are discussing about roll back some of the changes in that version.

Pinging @AlejandroFernandezLuces @RobPasMue

[AlejandroFernandezLuces]

Yes please, skip it.

[RobPasMue]

We have to do something about this soon IMO - I'd say moving towards the approach suggested by @germa89 in ansys/ansys-tools-visualization-interface#311 should solve future issues - even if it implies more work/logic on the interface.

Once we solve that issue I would do a new minor release and yank 0.10.0... it's giving a lot of problems throughout the ecosystem

[mcMunich]

now it works. But RobPasMue is correct, it has to be resolved so users don't get the same issue.

[germa89]

Since ansys/ansys-tools-visualization-interface#311 might take some time, I will do a quick patch release limiting the visualizer to 0.9.1.

[RobPasMue]

Let's prioritize this work as much as we can @AlejandroFernandezLuces - let me know if you need any support

[AlejandroFernandezLuces]

Working on it!

[RobPasMue]

Awesome, much appreciated! ❤

[germa89]

I am happy to review if you need/want to. :)