Dear Mr. Winarski:

First of all, please accept my deepest admiration that you are still running ANSYS APDL at the age of 76. This is truly remarkable. I love APDL too and use it extensively. The answer to your question is very simple. Let us assume you have coordinates X1, Y1, Z1.

your command:

nearest_node=Node(X1,Y1,Z1)

does not give the node nearest to X1, Y1, Z1, but gives the node, if any, at X1, Y1, Z1 within the tolerance defined inside ANSYS. If there is no node at X1,Y1,Z1, then the parameter nearest_node assumes zero.

I will give you an easier workaround. Use the following commands

! ------------- ANSYS APDL SCRIPT -----------------

! Change the parameters below to your choice

X1=5.4 ! Give the x-coordinate of interest

Y1=8.9 ! Give the y-coordinate of interest

Z1=3.2 ! Give the z-coordinate of interest

DX=0.1 ! X-Tolerance

DY=0.15 ! Y-Tolerance

DZ=0.05 ! Z-Tolerance

NSEL,ALL

NSEL,S,LOC,X,X1-DX,X1+DX

NSEL,R,LOC,Y,Y1-DY,Y1+DY

NSEL,R,LOC,Z,Z1-DZ,Z1+DZ

! Now you have selected a node or a small number of nodes

! in the neighborhood of X1,Y1,Z1

! You can select your node from this, or play with DX, DY and DZ

! Values until your requirements are satisfied

! You can use the *GET command to pick the node

! ------------------------------------------------------------

Alternately, you can also change the ANSYS default location-based selection tolerance to get what you want. But the script, like the one above, is simpler.

Please message me if you have the need to discuss more.

Cheers!

Sathya Prasad

! APDL code to find nearest node to specified coordinates

FINISH

/CLEAR

! Example model setup (replace with your actual model)

/PREP7

BLOCK,0,10,0,10,0,5 ! Create sample geometry

ESIZE,1 ! Element size

VMESH,ALL ! Mesh the volume

! ================================================

! MAIN SOLUTION - FIND NEAREST NODE TO (X,Y,Z)

! ================================================

! User-defined coordinates (modify these values)

targetX = 3.2

targetY = 4.7

targetZ = 1.8

! Method 1: Using NSEL with tolerances (most reliable)

NSEL,ALL ! Select all nodes first

*GET,min_dist,ACTIVE,,NDMXD ! Get maximum possible distance

nearest_node = 0

! Create a tolerance loop to find the node

*DO,tol,0.1,10,0.1 ! Start with 0.1 unit tolerance, increase by 0.1

NSEL,S,LOC,X,targetX-tol,targetX+tol

NSEL,R,LOC,Y,targetY-tol,targetY+tol

NSEL,R,LOC,Z,targetZ-tol,targetZ+tol

*GET,ncount,NODE,,COUNT

*IF,ncount,EQ,1,THEN

*GET,nearest_node,NODE,,NUM,MIN

*EXIT

*ELSEIF,ncount,GT,1,THEN

! When multiple nodes found, calculate exact distances

min_dist = 1e20

*VGET,nlist,NODE,,NLIST ! Get list of selected nodes

*DIM,distances,ARRAY,ncount

*DO,i,1,ncount

node_num = nlist(i)

*GET,nx,NODE,node_num,LOC,X

*GET,ny,NODE,node_num,LOC,Y

*GET,nz,NODE,node_num,LOC,Z

distances(i) = SQRT((nx-targetX)**2 + (ny-targetY)**2 + (nz-targetZ)**2)

*IF,distances(i),LT,min_dist,THEN

min_dist = distances(i)

nearest_node = node_num

*ENDIF

*ENDDO

*EXIT

*ENDIF

*ENDDO

! Method 2: Alternative approach using NDIST (simpler but less reliable)

*IF,nearest_node,EQ,0,THEN ! If first method failed

NSEL,ALL

NDIST,100,targetX,targetY,targetZ ! Find node within 100 units

*GET,nearest_node,NODE,,NUM,MIN

*ENDIF

! Display results

*STATUS,nearest_node

NSEL,S,NODE,,nearest_node

NPLOT

! ================================================

! VERIFICATION

! ================================================

*IF,nearest_node,NE,0,THEN

*GET,nodeX,NODE,nearest_node,LOC,X

*GET,nodeY,NODE,nearest_node,LOC,Y

*GET,nodeZ,NODE,nearest_node,LOC,Z

distance = SQRT((nodeX-targetX)**2 + (nodeY-targetY)**2 + (nodeZ-targetZ)**2)

*MSG,INFO

Nearest node found: %nearest_node% at (%nodeX%, %nodeY%, %nodeZ%)

Distance from target: %distance%

*ELSE

*MSG,WARN

No node found near (%targetX%, %targetY%, %targetZ%)

*ENDIF

Mr. Waleed Khalid has given an excellent solution. This is the simplest and the best APDL macro to achieve what you want, Mr. Daniel Winarski .

NODE(x,y,z) should still work. Here is a short example:

/PREP7

! creating some nodes

N ! node 1

N,,1,2,3 ! node 2

N,,2,3,1 ! node 3

N,,3,1,2 ! node 4

node_number = NODE(1.4, 0.3, 2.1) ! this returns number 4

! you can create node at these coordinates to check that 4 was the closest

N,,1.4, 0.3, 2.1

I tried this in 2024 R1, but I would be very surprised if the new version didn't support it anymore.