1. Settings: By default, in R14, ANSYS Mechanical will use a maximum of two processors to solve. To increase this number,
in Mechanical go to Tools > Solve Process Settings.... There, select one of the solve processes (Default is My Computer) and click 'Advanced' in the lower right corner.
In the dialogue box that appears, you can increase the maximum number of processors.
2. Solvers: not all solvers, solution types and model setups support parallel processing.
Some will only use one processor, others give a small amount of scaling, while others give excellent scaling.
3. Licences: At the moment, you will need additional HPC licences or HPC Packs in order to use more than 2 processors.
4. Hardware: the new Intel i7 processors have reintroduced Hyperthreading (HT). With HT enabled, a 4 core CPU will appear as 8 processors in Windows.
If ANSYS solves on 4 processor threads, your total CPU usage will appear to be only 50%. In this case, the CPU is, however, fully loaded.
If you choose 8 processors (with HT enabled), apparent CPU usage will go to 100%, but you will get little to no improvement in solution time and can actually get a decrease in performance.
You may also use up additional licences. The general recommendation for parallel ANSYS and HT is to not select more processors than there are physical cores.
