This page just covers starting up and making a few changes to the LS-Dyna GUI. It’s here for anyone that’s never used the program before.
LS-DYNA is a finite element analysis (FEA) software developed by Livermore Software Technology Corporation (LSTC), now owned by Ansys. It’s widely used for simulating highly nonlinear, transient dynamic problems, like crash tests, explosions, and impacts.
It was originally a research code developed at Lawrence-Livermore National Laboratory beginning in the 1970. It was commercialized in the late 80s to early 90s by LSTC. In 2019, Ansys bought it and has been merging it into the Ansys universe ever since.
Basically, if you need to simulate something getting smashed, blown up, or bent beyond recognition, LS-DYNA is a great tool.
Since LS-DYNA was developed independently from Ansys for most of its history, it comes with its own unique user interface for building models and analyzing results: LS-PrePost. If you’re accustomed to Ansys Workbench—the primary interface for Ansys FEA software—be prepared for a very different experience. LS-PrePost has its own workflow, tools, and quirks, making it feel less like a cousin to Workbench and more like a distant, rebellious relative who does things their own way.
Large portions of LS-DYNA functionality will currently will function within the Ansys workbench. However, LS-DYNA has a huge number of options, many of them not available through Workbench. I think Ansys adds in more functionality with each release…so I would expect that in the somewhat not-too-distant-future, all the functionality will be available within Workbench.
But it’s not there yet. So all these tutorials will work directly within LS PrePost. If you’re familiar with Workbench, feel free to see if they can be created within that environment.
LS PrePost 4.12.0
This is the version that comes with 2025R1, but pretty every versions I’ve ever seen looks more or less like that.
Starting up LS PrePost
On my windows system, I just do a search on LS and up pops LS PrePost
On my windows system, I just do a search on LS and up pops LS PrePost
Making some initial changes to the way LS PrePost displays the toolbars
Overall, LS Prepost has a main graphical window and a toolbar at the top of the page that functions like almost every other app I’ve ever used. So I won’t cover that.
There is a toolbar along the bottom of that looks like
And a toolbar along the right side that looks something like
It’s not obvious what those icons are for when first starting to use LS PrePost, so I usually turn on a text title associated with those tool bars.
That can be found on by pulling down on the top toolbar
View -> ToolBars
Select Text and Icon for both the right toolbar and the bottom toolbar
It takes up a little bit more screen real estate but it reminds me what the icons do.
Well, that about does it for a brief intro into starting up LS PrePost. If you want to watch a short video that covers most of what is discussed above, here is one I made.