Developing software to link with Abaqus 1

[Timusop]

Does anyone have any advice on developing a software programme to work with abaqus?

I would like to develop an input software programme to where a user would input a number of values ieally through a GUI, i.e. diameter, E, etc. And this would set up an input deck to be submitted to ABAQUS. I may need to use subroutines also. I am thinking that I could produce the programme using python and submit all the inputs to a python script which then submits this into an ABAQUS analysis. In the longer term, I would also like the programme to produce reports for the user.

Does anyone have any advice, experience or other suggestions on this?

Many Thanks.

 

[ESPcomposites]

Another option is to use Excel. VBA is quite powerful. Here is an example.

http://www.espcomposites.com/videos.html

Brian

http://www.espcomposites.com

 

[Timusop]

Thanks, but I cant see how this links in with Abaqus?

 

[ESPcomposites]

It works the same way, regardless of the solver (though CalculiX is a near ABAQUS clone). The basic concept is:

- Create the deck (input file) for whatever you solver you choose. The deck is create from the inputs in the Excel sheet. This can be done via Excel calcs or VBA.
- Send the input file to ABAQUS. I use CalculiX because it is open source and free to redistribute. But it works the same for ABAQUS.
- Read the results back into Excel and collect the information you want (stress, strain, deflection, eigenvalue, etc.)

This is just one approach. I like it because Excel has a good interface for I/O and is something that most people are familiar with. But there are many other approaches too.

Brian

http://www.espcomposites.com

 

[Timusop]

Thanks for your input Brian. Is it easier to write code from VBA to send the inputs to your input file or another piece of code (i.e. python script) to pull the information from your excel sheet into an input file? Thanks.

Also I look forward to any other suggestions and ideas

 

[ESPcomposites]

I am not familiar with python scripts so I am not sure. While Excel can work, the coding can be a bit tricky/frustrating as well. It may be best to do the simplest approach you can think of and then try other approaches, depending on your goals.

For me, Excel seemed to be the best choice, but not necessarily the simplest. Perl would also work, but you don't get the nice GUI either. Have a further look at python though because I know ABAQUS put a lot of effort into that. It may be the path of least resistance.

Brian

http://www.espcomposites.com

 

[MechIrl]

Using python will make the interface with Abaqus very straightforward, for both model generation and accessing results, as Abaqus has a number of built-in python methods for manipulating both ODB and MDB (CAE) files. However some things to note are that if you use the Abaqus geometry kernel in generating models it will require the use of a CAE token...this may defeat the purpose for you since you seem to want your own GUI.

Also developing GUIs is not quite as straightforward as it is with VB/VBA. Abaqus has some easy to use python GUI methods built-in but their purpose is to add your own GUIs to the CAE environment. They won't be useful if you want to bypass CAE altogether.

If you are building your own python GUI you could look at the likes of fox-toolkit, its largely what Abaqus CAE is based on.

Another choice might be to use visual C++. It should be easy enough to build a GUI with it and you would still maintain the ability to easily access Abaqus results files.

 

[loki3000]

you can use the python with the VTK gui frontend (not sure if vtk is the correct name). you can take a look - under one of the menus you have a couple of examples.

http://info.baustatik.uni-due.de/Lehre/CM-AOS/WS1011/Scripts/Abaqus-GUI-Script.pdf

also check gui toolkit under the doc.

and forget about vba/ cpp, it will make your life easier.

 

[rstupplebeen]

Simulia sells a separate program that automates data flow and processes. I have found it invaluable in optimizations, material characterizations....

http://www.simulia.com/products/isight2.html

I hope this helps.

Rob Stupplebeen

https://sites.google.com/site/robertkstupplebeen/

 

[Timusop]

Thanks everyone for your input, it sounds like trying to stick with Python may be the way to go, but I might have trouble with the GUI for it even with VTK.

The GUI toolkit with Abaqus is quite limited as mentioned.

Much appreciated.

 

[loki3000]

try PyQT.
you can use qt designer with it.