Resolving "SECTION CONTROL NAMES MUST BE UNIQUE" error when transferring b/w Abaqus models

[DualXeonSpaceHeater]

I've run into a similar issue as discussed in thread799-516824 when transferring results between a "pretensioned" /Standard model into an /Explicit model for crush analysis. Since that thread was closed without clear resolution, I figured I'd describe how I fixed a similar issue I was encountering.

My /Standard model mesh included enhanced hourglass control in certain regions, as well as element deletion for all valid regions. In the input file for the job "pretension," the controls EC-1 and EC-2 appear near the end of the file, between the assembly definition and materials definitions. These are referenced by section definitions throughout the file (6 times in my model).

[pre]*End Assembly
**
** ELEMENT CONTROLS
**
*Section Controls, name=EC-1, ELEMENT DELETION=YES
1., 1., 1.
*Section Controls, name=EC-2, ELEMENT DELETION=YES, hourglass=ENHANCED
1., 1., 1.
**
** MATERIALS[/pre]​

I configured the /Explicit model with an "Initial State" predefined field from the pretension job, and after configuring the rest of my /Explicit job parameters I was faced with the following errors:

[pre]Error in job pretension-transfer_y-crush: THE NAME EC-1 HAS BEEN USED ON A PREVIOUS SECTION CONTROL DEFINITION. SECTION CONTROL NAMES MUST BE UNIQUE.
Error in job pretension-transfer_y-crush: THE NAME EC-2 HAS BEEN USED ON A PREVIOUS SECTION CONTROL DEFINITION. SECTION CONTROL NAMES MUST BE UNIQUE.[/pre]​

Like user FEA way had mentioned in their post, I couldn't modify any of the mesh controls in the /Explicit model since importing the Initial State field disallows changes to parts and mesh. A quick list of what I tried:
[ul]
[li]Suppressing the Initial State predefined field let the job submit, run, and finish without errors[/li]
[li]With Initial State ON, the error would arise whether or not I used linked instances[/li]
[li]With Initial State ON and removing element deletion from the /Standard model definition (and therefore /Explicit as well), the /Explicit model solved without issues[/li]
[/ul]

Since it seemed to be related to importing a predefined field with element controls applied, the last way I could think of fixing the problem was through the Keyword Editor.

I checked the .inp files of both the /Standard and /Explicit jobs, searching for "EC-" in the text file:

[pre]*End Assembly
**
** ELEMENT CONTROLS
**
*Section Controls, name=EC-1, ELEMENT DELETION=YES
1., 1., 1.
*Section Controls, name=EC-2, ELEMENT DELETION=YES, hourglass=ENHANCED
1., 1., 1.
*Amplitude, name=smoothstep, definition=SMOOTH STEP
0., 0., 0.005, 1.
**
** MATERIALS[/pre]​

The /Explicit job had the exact same element control names so I moved over to the Keyword Editor, replacing all "EC-1" and "EC-2" occurrences with "EC-3" and "EC-4" respectively. IMO, the Keyword Editor really needs a search function, but I counted the number of occurrences in the .inp file to make sure I found all of them and it didn't take long for my model.

Finally, the result I was hoping for:

[pre]The job input file "pretension-transfer_y-crush.inp" has been submitted for analysis.
Job pretension-transfer_y-crush: Analysis Input File Processor completed successfully.
Job pretension-transfer_y-crush: Abaqus/Explicit Packager completed successfully.
Job pretension-transfer_y-crush: Abaqus/Explicit completed successfully.
Job pretension-transfer_y-crush completed successfully.[/pre]​

Hopefully this is helpful to someone who was struggling with a similar error.