VS Code LS-DYNA extension

Integrates LS-DYNA into VS Code.

This extension integrates LS-DYNA formatting, keyword snippets, and language tooling into VS Code.

Example

Features

Syntax & Navigation

• Syntax highlighting for .k, .key, and .dyna files
• Keyword folding — each *KEYWORD block collapses independently
• Jump to next/previous keyword: Ctrl+Alt+Down / Ctrl+Alt+Up
• Select the current keyword block via the right-click context menu
• Word wrap off by default for fixed-width column alignment

Include Files

• *INCLUDE filenames are highlighted green (resolved) or red (missing)
• Right-click an include filename → Open *INCLUDE File, or Ctrl/Cmd+Click
• Resolves *INCLUDE_PATH, *INCLUDE_PATH_RELATIVE, and ../ style relative paths

Parameters

• Go to Definition and Find All References for &parameter names (Ctrl/Cmd+Click)
• Rename parameter across the file (F2)
• Inlay hints show the resolved value of each &parameter reference inline
• "N references" CodeLens above each parameter definition — click to open the References panel
• Bare variable names in *PARAMETER_EXPRESSION values are highlighted the same color as &param references

Sidebar Panel

• Include Tree — recursively scans all *INCLUDE files and displays them as a tree; click any entry to open the file
• Keyword Index — shows all keywords used in the current file (local mode) or the full include tree (recursive mode); toggle between modes with the toolbar buttons

Diagnostics

• Lines exceeding 80 characters (excluding comments) are flagged as warnings

Snippets

• Tab-completable snippets for common LS-DYNA keywords

LS-PrePost

• Syntax highlighting for .cfile command files

Settings

The extension respects standard VS Code settings. Some useful ones for LS-DYNA files:

These can be scoped to LS-DYNA files only by adding them under "[lsdyna]" in your settings.json:

"[lsdyna]": {
    "editor.hover.enabled": false,
    "editor.inlayHints.enabled": "off"
}

Keyword Data

Snippets and hover documentation are generated from the pydyna keyword database (kwd.json), which is maintained by Ansys and covers 3168 LS-DYNA keywords with full field definitions, types, defaults, and help text. This data is used at build time only — it is not bundled in the extension.

To regenerate after updating pydyna:

# Clone pydyna as a sibling of this repo (one-time setup)
git clone https://github.com/ansys/pydyna ../pydyna

# Regenerate snippets and hover field data
python keywords/generate_from_pydyna.py

This overwrites snippets/lsdyna.json and keywords/field_data.json.

Contributing new Keywords

There are a few ways you can go about adding keywords or features:

1. Send me an email or message on Github with the desired keyword (and an example).
2. Make a pull request:
   1. Create a fork of the master.
   2. Clone pydyna as a sibling directory (../pydyna).
   3. Run python keywords/generate_from_pydyna.py from the repo root to regenerate snippets/lsdyna.json from the full pydyna keyword database (3168 keywords).
   4. Create a new pull request to merge your branch into master.

Contributors

• osullivryan
• yshl
• maxiiss

Some References

vim-lsdyna
DCHartlen's vscode extension