Timeout Error while trying to fetch the Active Discovery Session using Modeler(). How to find the right port for the active session of Discovery.

[Abhijith022]

Hi Team,
I am trying to use the below line with host id as "localhost" and port as the value available in the licensing port of Resource Monitor for Discovery.

modeler = Modeler(host = host_id, port = host_port )

But it seems to throw timeout error after 120seconds.
How to find the right port for the Active session of the Discovery.

Thanks

[RobPasMue]

Hi @Abhijith022!

If you want to connect to an active Discovery session, it is necessary that Discovery is launched together with the "API Server" plugin. Once that's properly launched, you will see a new tab at the top of your Discovery GUI which says "API SERVER" and inside you will find information on the port.

@b-matteo - is there any documentation on how to launch Discovery in standalone mode together with the API Server (without using PyAnsys Geometry)?

[b-matteo]

Hi @Abhijith022, @RobPasMue

so let's assume you want to start ApiServer in Discovery on localhost and port 50051.
To do so you have to use specific arguments to start Discovery.
If you installed the 2025.2 (earlier versions work as well back to 2023.2 version) Ansys products in the default folder:

*C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v252*

in that case, the ApiServer binaries should be in
C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v252\Addins\ApiServer

and Ansys Discovery installation folder in
C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v252\Discovery

then to start Ansys Discovery with ApiServer you need this command:

"C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v252\Discovery\Discovery.exe" /API_ADDRESS=127.0.0.1 /API_PORT=50051 --spaceclaim-options /ADDINMANIFESTFILE="C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v252\Addins\ApiServer\Presentation.ApiServerAddIn.Manifest.xml"

if you installed Ansys products in another folder, all you have to do is adapt the commands to your actual installation folder.

Once Ansys Discovery is up and running, you can check that the ApiServer is there by checking its tab in the tab row. you should see something like this:

The enabled "Stop Api Server" button tells you that the grpc server is running.
The text on the right allows you to check the ip and port the ApiServer is using. these are the host and port you need to use in PyAnsys Geometry.

Please feel free to reach out if anything is unclear or not working as expected

Regards

Matteo