Need help getting PyAEDT set up to run correctly

[RaisinO]

I've been struggling to fix an error that has come up after building a Spyder PyAEDT environment in Anaconda and am hoping that someone can point me in the right direction to get things up and running.

I am using the student version of AEDT on a Windows 10 workstation and noticed that when the version of AEDT is called out in some examples, it wasn't clear how to populate the field for the student version. At first I thought this might be the reason for the error that I'm receiving, but after reading through the discussions and bug reports here it seems that it may be something much more basic that I'm not understanding.

Running as suggested in another thread:

import pyaedt
pyaedt.version
'0.6.73'

Followed by:

import pyaedt

app = pyaedt.Hfss()
app.release_desktop()

Yields the error that I was receiving by trying to run an example, which is as follows:

pyaedt INFO: using existing logger.
pyaedt INFO: AEDT installation Path C:\Program Files\AnsysEM\Ansys Student\v222\Win64
pyaedt INFO: Launching AEDT with the gRPC plugin.
pyaedt INFO: New AEDT session is starting on gRPC port 62922
Exception in thread Thread-6 (launch_desktop_on_port):
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\threading.py", line 1016, in _bootstrap_inner
    self.run()
  File "C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\threading.py", line 953, in run
    self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)
  File "C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\site-packages\pyaedt\desktop.py", line 79, in launch_desktop_on_port
    subprocess.Popen(" ".join(command), env=my_env, stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
  File "C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\site-packages\spyder_kernels\customize\spydercustomize.py", line 109, in __init__
    super(SubprocessPopen, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
  File "C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\subprocess.py", line 971, in __init__
    self._execute_child(args, executable, preexec_fn, close_fds,
  File "C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\subprocess.py", line 1440, in _execute_child
    hp, ht, pid, tid = _winapi.CreateProcess(executable, args,
FileNotFoundError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified
Exception in thread Thread-7 (launch_desktop_on_port):
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\threading.py", line 1016, in _bootstrap_inner
    self.run()
  File "C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\threading.py", line 953, in run
    self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)
  File "C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\site-packages\pyaedt\desktop.py", line 79, in launch_desktop_on_port
    subprocess.Popen(" ".join(command), env=my_env, stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
  File "C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\site-packages\spyder_kernels\customize\spydercustomize.py", line 109, in __init__
    super(SubprocessPopen, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
  File "C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\subprocess.py", line 971, in __init__
    self._execute_child(args, executable, preexec_fn, close_fds,
  File "C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\subprocess.py", line 1440, in _execute_child
    hp, ht, pid, tid = _winapi.CreateProcess(executable, args,
FileNotFoundError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified
pyaedt ERROR: Failed to start AEDT on port 63260.
Traceback (most recent call last):

  Cell In[2], line 3
    app = pyaedt.Hfss()

  File C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\site-packages\pyaedt\generic\design_types.py:66 in Hfss
    return app(

  File C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\site-packages\pyaedt\hfss.py:166 in __init__
    FieldAnalysis3D.__init__(

  File C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\site-packages\pyaedt\application\Analysis3D.py:78 in __init__
    Analysis.__init__(

  File C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\site-packages\pyaedt\application\Analysis.py:110 in __init__
    Design.__init__(

  File C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\site-packages\pyaedt\application\Design.py:194 in __init__
    desktop = Desktop(

  File C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\site-packages\pyaedt\desktop.py:567 in __init__
    self._init_desktop(non_graphical)

  File C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\site-packages\pyaedt\desktop.py:690 in _init_desktop
    self._main.AEDTVersion = self._main.oDesktop.GetVersion()[0:6]

AttributeError: module '__main__' has no attribute 'oDesktop'

Since this appears to be a file not found error, I have tried to remove the environment and rebuild it several times but am still receiving the same error. Any help is greatly appreciated!

[rjwilliams84]

You mentioned you didn't see how to specify the student version, try adding in the student_version=True flag in the hfss(...) command and see if that helps.

https://aedt.docs.pyansys.com/version/stable/API/Primitives3D.html

[RaisinO]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm getting a similar error with the below input and subsequent output.

import pyaedt

app = pyaedt.Hfss(student_version=True)
pyaedt INFO: using existing logger.
pyaedt INFO: AEDT installation Path C:\Program Files\AnsysEM\Ansys Student\v222\Win64
pyaedt INFO: Launching AEDT with the gRPC plugin.
pyaedt INFO: New AEDT session is starting on gRPC port 55689
Exception in thread Thread-8 (launch_desktop_on_port):
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\threading.py", line 1016, in _bootstrap_inner
    self.run()
  File "C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\threading.py", line 953, in run
    self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)
  File "C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\site-packages\pyaedt\desktop.py", line 79, in launch_desktop_on_port
    subprocess.Popen(" ".join(command), env=my_env, stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
  File "C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\site-packages\spyder_kernels\customize\spydercustomize.py", line 109, in __init__
    super(SubprocessPopen, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
  File "C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\subprocess.py", line 971, in __init__
    self._execute_child(args, executable, preexec_fn, close_fds,
  File "C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\subprocess.py", line 1440, in _execute_child
    hp, ht, pid, tid = _winapi.CreateProcess(executable, args,
FileNotFoundError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified
Exception in thread Thread-9 (launch_desktop_on_port):
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\threading.py", line 1016, in _bootstrap_inner
    self.run()
  File "C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\threading.py", line 953, in run
    self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)
  File "C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\site-packages\pyaedt\desktop.py", line 79, in launch_desktop_on_port
    subprocess.Popen(" ".join(command), env=my_env, stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
  File "C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\site-packages\spyder_kernels\customize\spydercustomize.py", line 109, in __init__
    super(SubprocessPopen, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
  File "C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\subprocess.py", line 971, in __init__
    self._execute_child(args, executable, preexec_fn, close_fds,
  File "C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\subprocess.py", line 1440, in _execute_child
    hp, ht, pid, tid = _winapi.CreateProcess(executable, args,
FileNotFoundError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified
pyaedt ERROR: Failed to start AEDT on port 56048.
Traceback (most recent call last):

  Cell In[3], line 3
    app = pyaedt.Hfss(student_version=True)

  File C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\site-packages\pyaedt\generic\design_types.py:66 in Hfss
    return app(

  File C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\site-packages\pyaedt\hfss.py:166 in __init__
    FieldAnalysis3D.__init__(

  File C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\site-packages\pyaedt\application\Analysis3D.py:78 in __init__
    Analysis.__init__(

  File C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\site-packages\pyaedt\application\Analysis.py:110 in __init__
    Design.__init__(

  File C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\site-packages\pyaedt\application\Design.py:194 in __init__
    desktop = Desktop(

  File C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\site-packages\pyaedt\desktop.py:567 in __init__
    self._init_desktop(non_graphical)

  File C:\anaconda3\envs\spyder-pyaedt-env\lib\site-packages\pyaedt\desktop.py:690 in _init_desktop
    self._main.AEDTVersion = self._main.oDesktop.GetVersion()[0:6]

AttributeError: module '__main__' has no attribute 'oDesktop'

[RaisinO]

Just wanted to provide an update on things that I have tried today to see if they will fix the problem.

1. I verified that the installation path is correct.
2. I updated the PATH environment variable in Windows by adding the Ansys installation path to the Windows system PATH environment variable which should allow the system to find the Ansys executable when called.

Upon restarting Spyder and attempting these commands again, I still run into the same set of errors.

[rjwilliams84]

No idea if this will help or is relevant, but I noticed that you launch hfss using pyaedt.Hfss(). Have you tried launching the desktop this way:

import pyaedt
desktop=pyaedt.launch_desktop("2022.2", non_graphical=False, new_desktop_session=True, student_version=True)
hfss= pyaedt.Hfss()

I'm just wondering if using the launch_desktop() command before calling pyaedt.Hfss() would fix your issue.

[RaisinO]

Thanks for the suggestion it's much appreciated!

As an update, this turned out to be a bug that was corrected in the 0.6.74 release