Organization	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2012
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]
Organization	Organization ANSYS, Inc. (hereafter the "Company" or "ANSYS") develops and globally markets engineering simulation software and services widely used by engineers, designers, researchers and students across a broad spectrum of industries and academia, including aerospace, automotive, manufacturing, electronics, biomedical, energy and defense. In connection with its acquisitions of Esterel Technologies, S.A. ("Esterel") and Apache Design, Inc. ("Apache") on August 1, 2012 and 2011, respectively, the Company has reviewed the accounting guidance issued for disclosures about segments of an enterprise. As defined by the accounting guidance, the Company operates as three segments. However, the Company determined that its three operating segments are sufficiently similar and should be aggregated under the criteria provided in the related accounting guidance. Given the integrated approach to the multi-discipline problem-solving needs of the Company’s customers, a single sale of software may contain components from multiple product areas and include combined technologies. The Company also has a multi-year product and integration strategy that will result in new, combined products or changes to the historical product offerings. As a result, it is impracticable for the Company to provide accurate historical or current reporting among its various product lines.

Organization

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2012

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

ANSYS, Inc. (hereafter the "Company" or "ANSYS") develops and globally markets engineering simulation software and services widely used by engineers, designers, researchers and students across a broad spectrum of industries and academia, including aerospace, automotive, manufacturing, electronics, biomedical, energy and defense.

In connection with its acquisitions of Esterel Technologies, S.A. ("Esterel") and Apache Design, Inc. ("Apache") on August 1, 2012 and 2011, respectively, the Company has reviewed the accounting guidance issued for disclosures about segments of an enterprise. As defined by the accounting guidance, the Company operates as three segments. However, the Company determined that its three operating segments are sufficiently similar and should be aggregated under the criteria provided in the related accounting guidance.

Given the integrated approach to the multi-discipline problem-solving needs of the Company’s customers, a single sale of software may contain components from multiple product areas and include combined technologies. The Company also has a multi-year product and integration strategy that will result in new, combined products or changes to the historical product offerings. As a result, it is impracticable for the Company to provide accurate historical or current reporting among its various product lines.