How do I mesh two different objects of different materials as one (Abaqus CAE)?

[lodhss]

I have two CAD (.stp) parts of somewhat complex geometry. They share a common surface are have two different material properties. I followed rstupplebeen's advice (thread799-284328) "Add material properties to the parts. Add both parts to the assembly. Instance>Merge/Cut (see image)", was able to mesh the boundary surfaces as tris, but received an ERROR when trying to mesh them as tets.

When creating the two CAD parts, should the common surface have a slight overlap between them??? If so, how much? Maybe if there is no overlap, the mesher creates a small gap somewhere? Or perhaps there are some very irregular elements being created at the common surface. How do I troubleshoot my mesh?

 

[lodhss]

Note: abaqus cae says "the highlighted regions failed to mesh due to poor boundary triangles or other problems, and you may be able to work around these problems using virtual topology, finer local seeds, or mesh editing".

I am also new to abaqus cae and wanted to know if there's an easy way to add/remove elements from view. I'd like to view boundary triangles on part1.stp and remove part2.stp elements from view