Configuring the Execution Options

You can control the options that you want the Abaqus component to take when it executes.

You can specify the following execution options:

  • The command that Isight uses to submit jobs to Abaqus.
  • The configuration file that determines which parameters will be extracted from the Abaqus input (.inp) file and the data (.dat) file.
  • The type of data that will be extracted from the Abaqus output database (.odb) file.
  • The information that Abaqus writes in the Logs tab.

  1. Double-click the Abaqus component icon .

    The Abaqus Component Editor appears.

  2. From the Abaqus Component Editor, click the Execution tab to control run-time and design-time execution options.

    The contents of the tab appear.

  3. Set any of the following options in the Run Time Options area, as desired:

    • In the Abaqus Command box, specify the command that Isight will use to launch Abaqus, including any command line options. This setting can be stored as a preference and remembered in future sessions. You can type the command directly in the box. The default setting for Windows is as follows:

      abaqus.bat input=input_file job=job_name interactive

      The default setting for Linux is the same, except that you need to provide the proper Abaqus command for Linux.

      This setting assumes that the Abaqus executable (abaqus.bat or abaqus) is defined in your path variable. You can use the Input tab to read input parameters from either a model database (.cae) file or an input (.inp) file.

      If you specified a model database file, the component extracts the name of the first job defined in the file and uses that name for the input file and the job in the Abaqus command.

      If you specified an input file, the component uses the same name for the input file and the job in the Abaqus command.

      If you did not specify a file on the Input tab, you must type the name of the input file and the job in the Abaqus command. In addition, you must include the full path to the input file.

    • You can also type the name of the Abaqus executable directly in the text box as a first argument in the Abaqus Command Line area.

      You can use substitutions such as {var xxx}, {jobid}, and {user}. For more information about file parameters and substitutions, see the Isight User’s Guide.

      Note: You can use substitutions such as {modeldir}, {homedir}, and {root xx} at the start of the Abaqus Command Line area to select the Abaqus executable. For more information about file parameters and substitutions, see the Isight User’s Guide. .

    • In the Parameter list, select a parameter to use as an argument.

      To add an existing parameter, click Insert .

      Isight adds the parameter name to the Arguments text box at the current cursor position and highlights it in green, indicating that the value will be substituted at run time.

      To add a new parameter, type the parameter name in the Parameter list and click . The new parameter will have data type Real, but you can change the type on the Design Gateway Parameters tab.

      To delete a parameter from the arguments list, click the parameter and press Backspace.

    • Set the Time Out option in the corresponding box. This setting represents (in “wall clock” seconds) how long the component is allowed to execute. After this time the component will be interrupted and then either retried or the simulation process flow will fail.

    • Set the Wait for Output File option. When this check box is selected, the component waits up to a certain amount of time (after the Abaqus command line has returned) for the Abaqus output file to become available. This option is particularly useful for background execution common in queuing systems. The Max Wait setting is the maximum amount of time that the component will wait for the output file to appear after the command returns (a setting of “0” means that there is no maximum wait time). The Additional Wait setting represents additional time allotted after the file is found to allow the file transfer to finish.

    • Click Save Output File to Database if you want the Abaqus output database (.odb) file for each run saved to the results database. You must activate (check) this option if you want to view your output database file after execution using Abaqus/Viewer.

      Important: When you activate this setting (by default, it is active), you must have sufficient disk space to retain all the output database files of every run. In addition, be sure that you have the Show File Parameters preference option selected.

    • Use the Ignore ERROR and extract results check box to determine how runs with error messages are marked in the log file. When this option is not selected (the default setting), any runs with error messages are marked in the logs as failed runs. If you check this option, runs are not marked as failed and the component attempts to parse the output file even if error messages are found in the logs. Activating this option is useful when, for example, you would like to extract results from partially converged analyses.

    • Click Use SAI if you want Abaqus component to use SolidWorks Associative Interface feature at runtime. If you check this option and parse a .cae file in Input tab, a dialog will open. In this dialog, you can specify the SolidWorks files which should be exported to Abaqus/CAE at runtime via SolidWorks Associative Interface.

  4. Set any of the options in the Design Time Options area, as desired:

    • The Config File option allows you to specify the location of the Abaqus configuration file. You should not have to set this option, unless you move the file from its default location. The configuration file is used to determine which parameters will be extracted from the Abaqus input file. For more information on the configuration file, see The Abaqus Configuration File.

    • The Include Options buttons allow you to determine how the component behaves when reading Abaqus input files that contain INCLUDE statements. By default, the component prompts you before parsing a file with INCLUDE statements, which allows you to choose how to proceed for each file.

    • The Output File Parsing Options allow you to determine if you want to parse all the output database (.odb) files associated with a model database (.cae) file that contains multiple analysis jobs or models or if you want to parse only the browsed output database file.

    • The Store Input File in Model option allows you to determine if you want the reference Abaqus input file stored inside the model (.zmf) file.

    • The Extract CATIA V5 parameters option allows you to extract the CATIA V5 geometry parameters, if a CATIA V5 geometry file has been imported into Abaqus using the CATIA V5 Associative Interface.

    You may experience performance issues if you are working with a very large Abaqus output file. For information about using large files with Isight, search the Dassault Systèmes DSX.ClientCare Knowledge Base at http://www.3ds.com/support/knowledge-base.

  5. Set any of the options in the ODB Extraction Options area, as desired.

    These options determine which potential output parameters are generated when the output database (.odb) file is read when using the Output tab.

    Option Description
    Extract Mass Properties Extracts the mass and center of mass, if they are available.
    Extract History Outputs Extracts all history output data that are available in the output database file.
    Extract Min/Max History Outputs Extracts the minimum and maximum values from each array of history output data.
    Extract Field Outputs Extracts all field output data that is available in the output database file. If you disable this option, the following three field output options are also disabled.
    Extract All Field Outputs Determines whether to extract min/max values for all field output or only selected field output. When you clear (uncheck) this check box, you can control which types of field output to extract using the following check boxes (only the specified type of output is extracted):
    • Extract Stress Fields
    • Extract Spatial Fields
    • Extract Element Fields

    Note: Field output extraction min/max calculations are made over the entire finite element model.
    Extract Field Sets Computes the minimum and maximum values of each field output variable that are stored in an element or node set in the output database file.
    Extract Field Output Components For tensor and vector quantity field output, this option calculates the min/max value of each component of each output. For example, nodal displacement is a vector represented by components (u1, u2, u3). This setting allows the component to return min/max u1, min/max u2, and min/max u3 across the field. If this option is not used, the Abaqus component only returns min/max magnitude = sqrt (u12+u22+u32) across the entire field.
    Extract Fields at Each Frame Extracts minimum and maximum field outputs quantities at each frame of each step. If this option is not selected, minimum and maximum field output quantities are extracted only at each step (this is the default setting).
    Extract Tensor invariants Extracts all available invariants for tensor field outputs.
    Extract Engineering Min Extracts invariants for tensor field output. If desired, you can use the Enter percentage for Engineering Min/Max text box to specify the percentage of the lowest values to ignore. By default, no values are ignored.

    For example, if the followings values are the nodes' stresses:

    1, 2, 92, 72, 68, 74, 5, 9, 11, 4,
    Isight sorts the data from low to high. If you enter 0% (or leave the text box empty), no values are ignored and the engineering minimum value is 1. If you enter 20%, the engineering minimum value is 4.

    Extract Engineering Max Extracts invariants for tensor field output. If desired, you can use the Enter percentage for Engineering Min/Max text box to specify the percentage of highest values to ignore. For example, if the following values are the nodes' stresses:
    1, 2, 92, 72, 68, 74, 5, 9, 11, 4,
    Isight sorts the data from low to high. If you enter 0% (or leave the text box empty), no values are ignored and the engineering maximum value is 92. If you enter 30%, the engineering maximum value is 68.

    You may experience performance issues if you are working with a very large Abaqus output database file. Extracting large amounts of information from an output database file will affect the performance of the Abaqus component. Therefore, you should only use the ODB Extraction Options that will be used by the design driver component. For information about using large files with Isight, search the Dassault Systèmes DSX.ClientCare Knowledge Base at https://www.3ds.com/support/knowledge-base.

  6. Set any of the following options in the Logging Options area, as desired:

    Option Description
    Log Standard Output If checked, any messages that Abaqus writes to standard output will be sent to the Logs tab on the Runtime Gateway.
    Log Standard Error If checked, any messages that Abaqus writes to standard error will be sent to the Logs tab on the Runtime Gateway.
    Log at most You can use this option to prevent Abaqus standard output or standard error messages from overwhelming the Logs tab by limiting the amount of text that is logged. Only the number of lines specified by this option will be displayed in the Logs tab on the Runtime Gateway. The specified number is the total number of lines logged. Half of the lines are taken from the start of the execution process, and half are taken from the current state, or the end, of the process. Lines from between the two are discarded.

  7. Proceed to one of the following topics if you want to use a grid option (such as LSF) with your component for distributed processing: