You can think of it as a surface mesh of triangles around the geometry. The STL format is a faceted data format, which is not strictly compatible with the types of geometry that ANSYS and most CAD systems expect. The first step is to right click on the desired geometry result and select Export -> STL Here we will work with a metal forming test case, done with ANSYS Autodyn. You are not limited to just sending deformed geometry to another analysis, you can also send it back to a geometry using tools that you probably already have. If stress states are desired, the INISTATE APDL command will be necessary.
Then I’ll show how you can use the powerful reverse engineering features in SpaceClaim to make your deformed results into a geometry again.
In this post I’ll show how to take your deformed geometry to another ANSYS analysis. In addition to the new workflows that it enables, you can also easily reverse engineer your deformed results using ANSYS SpaceClaim. The deformed geometry capability in ANSYS R17 is one of the most powerful and easy to use new features in the latest release of ANSYS. Ansys Convergence Conference Presentations.