In ANSYS 12.0.1, the PSMAT command allows one to see a visual representation of the mass, damping, or stiffness matrices by creating a postscript file of the matrix.

This is a useful learning aid, although it should not be used for large models.  (In fact, model with more than 100,000 DOF will most likely not be able to generate a valid postscript file.)  I’d recommend using this for models with a few thousand DOF at most.

Use the WRFULL command to write the .full file during a SOLVE without performing an actual solution. Enter the /AUX2 processor, and point to the .full file with the FILE command. The PSMAT command will then enable you to create the postscript file of the matrix.

Tools such as Ghostscript (ps2pdf file.ps) or ImageMagick (convert file.ps file.png) can be used to convert the Postscript file to another format.

Here is a sample stiffness matrix output.  Note that symmetric matrices will write only the upper triangular matrix whereas an unsymmetric matrix will shown the entire matrix.

Superelements add a dense element matrix, and one can see its effect in the global stiffness matrix with this sample output (refer to the upper-right corner).