What happens when deleted objects are referred to?

You should take care when deleting or renaming objects, such as materials and amplitudes, that may be referred to by other objects. For example, if you delete or rename a material, the sections that refer to the material become inconsistent. To resolve the missing reference, you can edit the section and refer to a new material, or you can create a new material with the same name as the deleted material.

Table 1 lists objects that are commonly referred to by other objects.

Table 1. Objects that are commonly referred to by other objects.
This object Can be referred to by these types of objects
Material Section
Profile Section, skin
Section Section assignment
Interaction Output request, contact controls
Interaction property Interaction
Amplitude Load, predefined field, boundary condition, interaction
Connector section Connector section assignment
Region (set or surface) Boundary condition, predefined field, load, interaction, constraint, connector section assignment, output request, section assignment, beam section orientation, material orientation, output request, DOF monitor, adaptive mesh domain
Load Load case, output request
Boundary condition Load case
Datum coordinate system Boundary condition, connector section assignment, material orientation, constraint
Datum plane Load
Datum axis Load
Datum point Constraint
Part instance Constraint
Part Part instance

Parts and part instances behave slightly differently. If you delete a part after you have instanced the part in the Assembly module, Abaqus/CAE suppresses the part instance in the assembly. You can delete the instance from the assembly. Alternatively, if you then create a new part that uses the same name, you can unsuppress the part instance to include it in the assembly. In addition, if you rename a part or a datum, objects that refer to the part or datum refer to the new name; and, as a result, the reference does not become inconsistent.