Tips for Using the SIMULIA Associative Interface for Abaqus/CAE

The tips provided in this section will help you use the SIMULIA Associative Interface for Abaqus/CAE to import CATIA geometry into Abaqus/CAE.

Additional tips are available from the Dassault Systemes Knowledge Base at http://support.3ds.com/knowledge-base/or the SIMULIA Online Support System, which is accessible through the My Support page at http://www.simulia.com.

This page discusses:

Propagating your model

When you create a new part or product in CATIA, you must propagate your model before you use the SIMULIA Associative Interface for Abaqus/CAE for the first time. You do not have to propagate the file subsequently; the SIMULIA Associative Interface for Abaqus/CAE propagates the model before exporting a part or product to it to Abaqus/CAE.

Updating your model

After you have imported the product from CATIA into Abaqus/CAE, you can continue to modify the position of instances in the CATIA product. However, before you use the SIMULIA Associative Interface for Abaqus/CAE to update the changes in the product to Abaqus/CAE, you must update the changes in CATIA by selecting Update from the action bar or by entering [Ctrl]+U. The SIMULIA Associative Interface for Abaqus/CAE will not export the changes in the CATIA model until you have updated it.

Exporting to a file

When you export your model to a file, the SIMULIA Associative Interface for Abaqus/CAE creates a CATIA V5 .CATPart or .CATProduct file. If a product is open in CATIA, the parts are written to a .CATProduct file; if a single part is open in CATIA, the part is written to a .CATPart file. If you import a .CATPart file, all of the features that are visible in CATIA(solid, surface, line, plane, and PartBody) are imported as a single part into Abaqus/CAE.

For example, if a part has a solid and a surface that are visible in CATIA, both the surface and the solid will be imported as a single part into Abaqus/CAE. If you want to import only the solid into Abaqus/CAE, only the solid should be visible. Similarly, to import only the surface as a single part, the solid along with any planes, lines, points, and sketches that were used to create the surface must be hidden in CATIA.

Importing planes

The default X–Y, Y–Z, and Z–X planes will not be imported into Abaqus/CAE, even if they are kept visible in CATIA. In contrast, if an additional plane, other than the default planes, is kept visible in CATIA, the plane will be imported into Abaqus/CAE as a small patch of surface along with the part.

Joining surfaces

If you import a surface model into Abaqus/CAE and then add a surface feature (fill, extrude, sweep, multi-section surface, or blend) to the model in, the associativity between the model in CATIA and Abaqus/CAE is lost until you join the new surface to the original surface in CATIA.

File-naming conventions

The following conventions apply to the conversion of part and product names from CATIA to Abaqus/CAE:

  • A part name in CATIA that starts with a numerical digit is imported into Abaqus/CAE with a p_ preceding the number.
  • A long part name in CATIA will be truncated to 38 characters when the part is imported into Abaqus/CAE. For example, if the part name in CATIA is PartName_controlaram_YearMade_1998_ModelUsed_2000, the part name in Abaqus/CAE will be PartName_controlaram_YearMade_1998_Mod.
  • If a CATIA model contains more than one part with a name longer than 38 characters and the first 38 characters are the same, the names are truncated to 34 characters and _n is appended to the end of the name, where n is the part number.

Maintaining the associativity

The associativity between CATIA and Abaqus/CAE is broken when you export a part from CATIA that contains both a surface and a solid that have been kept visible. As a result, additional changes in CATIA will not be propagated into Abaqus/CAE. Two workarounds are provided that allow the associativity to continue:

  • Propagate the file in CATIA and start a new associative import into Abaqus/CAE.
  • Hide any internal surfaces in CATIA and continue the associative import of only the solid regions of the part.