How to use ABAQUS more efficiently

[JD88]

Hi,

I am trying to find some tips on how to use ABAQUS more efficiently. I am creating a geometry in Solidworks and then importing it into ABAQUS for FEA. After a simulation has finished I make minor changes to the geometry such as change the wall thickness or the width of one side and then I need to run the simulation again. Currently I do this by going back to Solidworks, altering the geometry and then starting ABAQUS from the beginning. This means that each time I have to import the new geometry and redo all of the steps to setup the simulation.

Is there a faster way to do this? Can I update the geometry directly in ABAQUS in a way that will preserve everything I have already setup such as the controls and boundary conditions?

Thanks

 

[FEA way]

Abaqus offers Associative Interface feature for SolidWorks. You can use it to transfer a model from SW to Abaqus and automatically update the geometry.

 

[DanStro]

One thing about the Associative Interface is that I find that if you need to partition your parts you need to do in SW. If you do it that way when you reimport the model everything comes in real nice, it's actually pretty impressive sometimes. But if you partition the part(s) in CAE then you most likely will need to go through all of that work again, including remeshing.