Plots failing Spyder

[mcMunich]

🤓 Before submitting the issue

• I have visited the Troubleshooting section.
• I have searched among the existing issues.
• I am using a Python virtual environment.
• I am using the latest version of PyMAPDL and its dependencies (fully updated virtual environment). You can update them using pip install --upgrade --upgrade-strategy eager ansys-mapdl-core in your activated virtual environment.

🔍 Description of the bug

Spyder will not produce plots (inline/auto/Tk/etc) when I use the standard prep7 plot commands.
mapdl.aplot/lplot/nplot...

This fails, for example. With or without notebook=False:
mapdl.aplot(cpos="xy", show_lines=True,notebook=False)

However, the plots do appear in post1:

mapdl.post1()
### Plot displacement
result = mapdl.result
result_set = 0  # Plotting the first results
disp_fact = 1e10
result.plot_nodal_displacement(
    result_set,
    cpos="xy",
    displacement_factor=5,
    show_displacement=True,
    show_edges=True,
    notebook=False
)

But I am pretty sure the processor in apdl is not the issue, it is just weird that some work and some don't.

This was an issue earlier that could be resolved by adding notebook=False argument to the plot arguments, but that does not appear to resolve the issue.

The plots do generate if the .py (only tested w/ notebook=False) is run directly from the console in the venv.

🕵️ Steps To Reproduce

use the ansys python manager and start a new venv and use spyder.
download the bracket_example.py and run.
See if plots are generated
by default spyder might use inline plots but those are also failing now. 
Note the online version of bracket_example does not have the notebook=False arguments. Should they be added?

💻 Which Operating System are you using?

Windows

🐍 Which Python version are you using?

3.12

💾 Which MAPDL version are you using?

261

📝 PyMAPDL Report

PyMAPDL Software and Environment Report

Packages Requirements

---

Core packages

ansys.mapdl.core : 0.73.0
numpy : 2.4.4
platformdirs : 4.9.6
scipy : 1.17.1
grpc : Package not found
ansys.api.mapdl.v0 : Package not found
ansys.mapdl.reader : 0.55.2
google.protobuf : Package not found
ansys-math-core : 0.2.5

Optional packages

matplotlib : 3.10.9
pyvista : 0.47.3
pyiges : 0.3.3
tqdm : 4.67.3
ansys-tools-visualization_interface: 0.12.1
pandas : 3.0.3

Ansys Installation

---

Version Location

252 C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v252
261 C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v261
271 C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v271

Ansys Environment Variables

---

ANSYS252_DIR C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v252\ANSYS
ANSYS261_DIR C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v261\ANSYS
ANSYS271_DIR C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v271\ANSYS
ANSYSLIC_DIR C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\Shared Files\Licensing
AWP_LOCALE252 en-us
AWP_LOCALE261 en-us
AWP_LOCALE271 en-us
AWP_ROOT252 C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v252
AWP_ROOT261 C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v261
AWP_ROOT271 C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v271
CADOE_LIBDIR252 C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v252\CommonFiles\Language\en-us
CADOE_LIBDIR261 C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v261\CommonFiles\Language\en-us
CADOE_LIBDIR271 C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v271\CommonFiles\Language\en-us

📝 Installed packages

aiohappyeyeballs==2.6.1
aiohttp==3.13.5
aiosignal==1.4.0
alabaster==1.0.0
ansys-api-mapdl==0.6.0
ansys-api-mechanical==0.1.4
ansys-api-platform-instancemanagement==1.1.3
ansys-dpf-core==0.16.0
ansys-mapdl-core==0.73.0
ansys-mapdl-reader==0.55.2
ansys-math-core==0.2.5
ansys-mechanical-core==0.12.6
ansys-mechanical-stubs==0.1.10
ansys-platform-instancemanagement==1.1.2
ansys-pythonnet==3.1.0rc6
ansys-tools-common==0.5.0
ansys-tools-visualization-interface==0.12.1
anyio==4.13.0
appdirs==1.4.4
argon2-cffi==25.1.0
argon2-cffi-bindings==25.1.0
arrow==1.4.0
astroid==4.0.4
asttokens==3.0.1
async-lru==2.3.0
asyncssh==2.22.0
atomicwrites==1.4.1
attrs==26.1.0
autopep8==2.0.4
babel==2.18.0
bcrypt==5.0.0
beautifulsoup4==4.14.3
binaryornot==0.6.0
black==26.3.1
bleach==6.3.0
cattrs==26.1.0
certifi==2026.4.22
cffi==2.0.0
chardet==7.4.3
charset-normalizer==3.4.7
click==8.3.3
cloudpickle==3.1.2
clr_loader==0.2.10
colorama==0.4.6
comm==0.2.3
contourpy==1.3.3
cookiecutter==2.7.1
cryptography==46.0.7
cycler==0.12.1
cyclopts==4.11.0
debugpy==1.8.20
decorator==5.2.1
defusedxml==0.7.1
diff-match-patch==20241021
dill==0.4.1
docstring-to-markdown==0.17
docstring_parser==0.18.0
docutils==0.22.4
executing==2.2.1
fastjsonschema==2.21.2
flake8==7.1.2
fonttools==4.62.1
fqdn==1.5.1
frozenlist==1.8.0
geomdl==5.4.0
grpcio==1.80.0
h11==0.16.0
httpcore==1.0.9
httpx==0.28.1
idna==3.13
imagesize==2.0.0
importlib_metadata==9.0.0
inflection==0.5.1
intervaltree==3.2.1
ipykernel==6.31.0
ipython==9.13.0
ipython_pygments_lexers==1.1.1
ipywidgets==8.1.8
isoduration==20.11.0
isort==8.0.1
jaraco.classes==3.4.0
jaraco.context==6.1.2
jaraco.functools==4.4.0
jedi==0.19.2
jellyfish==1.2.1
Jinja2==3.1.6
json5==0.14.0
jsonpointer==3.1.1
jsonschema==4.26.0
jsonschema-specifications==2025.9.1
jupyter-events==0.12.1
jupyter-lsp==2.3.1
jupyter_client==8.8.0
jupyter_core==5.9.1
jupyter_server==2.17.0
jupyter_server_proxy==4.5.0
jupyter_server_terminals==0.5.4
jupyterlab==4.5.6
jupyterlab_pygments==0.3.0
jupyterlab_server==2.28.0
jupyterlab_widgets==3.0.16
keyring==25.7.0
kiwisolver==1.5.0
lark==1.3.1
lsprotocol==2025.0.0
markdown-it-py==4.0.0
MarkupSafe==3.0.3
matplotlib==3.10.9
matplotlib-inline==0.2.1
mccabe==0.7.0
mdurl==0.1.2
mistune==3.2.0
more-itertools==11.0.2
msgpack==1.1.2
multidict==6.7.1
mypy_extensions==1.1.0
nbclient==0.10.4
nbconvert==7.17.1
nbformat==5.10.4
nest-asyncio==1.6.0
nest-asyncio2==1.7.2
notebook_shim==0.2.4
numpy==2.4.4
numpydoc==1.10.0
packaging==26.1
pandas==3.0.3
pandocfilters==1.5.1
parso==0.8.6
pathspec==1.1.0
pexpect==4.9.0
pickleshare==0.7.5
pillow==12.2.0
platformdirs==4.9.6
pluggy==1.6.0
pooch==1.9.0
prometheus_client==0.25.0
prompt_toolkit==3.0.52
propcache==0.4.1
protobuf==6.33.6
psutil==7.2.2
ptyprocess==0.7.0
pure_eval==0.2.3
pycodestyle==2.12.1
pycparser==3.0
pydocstyle==6.3.0
pyflakes==3.2.0
PyGithub==2.9.1
Pygments==2.20.0
pyiges==0.3.3
PyJWT==2.12.1
pylint==4.0.5
pylint-venv==3.0.4
pyls-spyder==0.4.0
PyNaCl==1.6.2
pyparsing==3.3.2
PyQt5==5.15.11
PyQt5-Qt5==5.15.2
PyQt5_sip==12.18.0
PyQtWebEngine==5.15.7
PyQtWebEngine-Qt5==5.15.2
python-dateutil==2.9.0.post0
python-json-logger==4.1.0
python-lsp-black==2.0.0
python-lsp-jsonrpc==1.1.2
python-lsp-ruff==2.3.1
python-lsp-server==1.14.0
python-slugify==8.0.4
pytokens==0.4.1
pytoolconfig==1.3.1
pyuca==1.2
pyvista==0.47.3
pywin32-ctypes==0.2.3
pywinpty==3.0.3
PyYAML==6.0.3
pyzmq==27.1.0
QDarkStyle==3.2.3
qstylizer==0.2.4
QtAwesome==1.4.2
qtconsole==5.7.2
QtPy==2.4.3
referencing==0.37.0
requests==2.33.1
rfc3339-validator==0.1.4
rfc3986-validator==0.1.1
rfc3987-syntax==1.1.0
rich==15.0.0
rich-rst==1.3.2
roman-numerals==4.1.0
rope==1.14.0
rpds-py==0.30.0
rtree==1.4.1
ruff==0.15.11
scipy==1.17.1
scooby==0.11.2
Send2Trash==2.1.0
setuptools==82.0.1
simpervisor==1.0.0
six==1.17.0
snowballstemmer==3.0.1
sortedcontainers==2.4.0
soupsieve==2.8.3
Sphinx==9.1.0
sphinxcontrib-applehelp==2.0.0
sphinxcontrib-devhelp==2.0.0
sphinxcontrib-htmlhelp==2.1.0
sphinxcontrib-jsmath==1.0.1
sphinxcontrib-qthelp==2.0.0
sphinxcontrib-serializinghtml==2.0.0
spyder==6.1.4
spyder-kernels==3.1.4
stack-data==0.6.3
superqt==0.8.1
tabulate==0.10.0
terminado==0.18.1
text-unidecode==1.3
textdistance==4.6.3
three-merge==0.1.1
tinycss2==1.4.0
tomlkit==0.14.0
tornado==6.5.5
tqdm==4.67.3
traitlets==5.14.3
trame==3.12.0
trame-client==3.11.4
trame-common==1.1.3
trame-router==2.3.0
trame-server==3.10.0
trame-vtk==2.10.2
trame-vuetify==3.2.1
typing_extensions==4.15.0
tzdata==2026.1
ujson==5.12.0
uri-template==1.3.0
urllib3==2.6.3
vtk==9.6.1
watchdog==6.0.0
wcwidth==0.6.0
webcolors==25.10.0
webencodings==0.5.1
websocket-client==1.9.0
websockets==15.0.1
whatthepatch==1.0.7
widgetsnbextension==4.0.15
wslink==2.5.6
yapf==0.43.0
yarl==1.23.0
zipp==3.23.1

📝 Logger output file

[mcMunich]

@germa89 Magically cured itself.

[mikerife]

@mcMunich I was trying to recreate this with a new venv and did when I directly updated Trame via pip. Maybe a clue?

[mcMunich]

@mikerife @germa89 @RobPasMue This has occurred again. It's a spyder issue and is sporadic.
Some conflict with the packages?

Steps to recreate:

I build a new venv with the ansys python manager (apm)
Geta new python 3.13.14 version with the apm
Install the python default packages
Installing the pymapdl target -> all
click the Spyder button for an IDE
minor issue, spyder will not automatically use the new py version

And try to run a simple pymapdl script with a plot.
mapdl.run('eplot') will work, but mapdl.eplot(notebook=False) will return some lines and in spyder I only get the partial lines:

So spyder is not returning an error when I use the mapdl.vplot/aplot/etcplot commands. It just returns the text above in the shell and continues.

Spyder also does not automatically use the new py version so in spyder you have to go into tools- preferences - python interpreter to ensure that it is set correctly.

I have tried to update trame and pip un/installed it but nothing changed. I also tried just the baseline pymapdl install (default, no target) and at the second launch a warning popped up that I needed pip install ansys-mapdl-core[graphics] but that just get me back to the Widget error.

I had this solved, didn't change anything (honest!) but when I reopened my computer the next day and restarted spyder, it had reverted. No clue.

I added a @RobPasMue here since we have spyder as an option in the apm and assuming it works for @mikerife @germa89 there must be some difference when we use it and not something else. The plots usually show if running a script directly from the venv or with jupyter.

[germa89]

@mcMunich can you try the branch "fix/spyder-plots-message" in the PR #4687 ??

Steps:

I build a new venv with the ansys python manager (apm)
Geta new python 3.13.14 version with the apm
Install the python default packages
Installing the pymapdl target -> all
Here you need to do:

pip install 'ansys-mapdl-core[all]'
pip install git+https://github.com/ansys/pymapdl.git@fix/spyder-plots-message

We install first "all" and then the git, so we make sure we have all the dependencies.

click the Spyder button for an IDE
minor issue, spyder will not automatically use the new py version

Let me know if this branch fix your issue.