Abaqus Scripting User's Manual  


6.8 Interacting with Abaqus/Standard, Abaqus/Explicit, and Abaqus/CFD

The Job commands include methods that allow you to submit jobs to Abaqus/Standard, Abaqus/Explicit, and Abaqus/CFD. This section describes how you can interact with Abaqus/Standard, Abaqus/Explicit, and Abaqus/CFD and synchronize your scripts with the analysis job. The following topics are covered:


6.8.1 Processing messages from Abaqus/Standard, Abaqus/Explicit, and Abaqus/CFD

You can use the addMessageCallback method to associate an event-driven function with a particular message that is retrieved from Abaqus/Standard, Abaqus/Explicit, or Abaqus/CFD. When Abaqus/CAE retrieves the specific message from Abaqus/Standard, Abaqus/Explicit, or Abaqus/CFD, the function executes and takes the necessary action. This type of function is called a callback function. The addMessageCallback method specifies which callback function to use for which message. The arguments to addMessageCallback are:

These arguments allow you to associate the callback function with both a particular job and a particular message. Alternatively, you can associate the callback function with all jobs and all messages. The commands are described in Chapter 32, “Messaging commands,” of the Abaqus Scripting Reference Manual.

The interface definition of the callback function is 

def functionName(jobName, messageType, data, userData)
The arguments to the callback function are:

The following script is an example of how you can use the messaging capability of the Abaqus Scripting Interface. The callback function will intercept all messages from Abaqus/Standard, Abaqus/Explicit, or Abaqus/CFD and print the messages in the Abaqus/CAE command line interface. Use the following command to retrieve the example script: 

abaqus fetch job=simpleMonitor
To execute the script, do the following:
"""
simpleMonitor.py

Print all messages issued during an Abaqus;
analysis to the Abaqus/CAE command line interface
"""

from abaqus import *
from abaqusConstants import *  
from jobMessage import ANY_JOB, ANY_MESSAGE_TYPE

#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
def simpleCB(jobName, messageType, data, userData):
    """
    This callback prints out all the
    members of the data objects
    """

    format = '%-18s  %-18s  %s'
    
    print 'Message type: %s'%(messageType)
    print
    print 'data members:'
    print format%('member', 'type', 'value')
    
    members =  dir(data)
    for member in members:
        memberValue = getattr(data, member)
        memberType = type(memberValue).__name__
        print format%(member, memberType, memberValue)
    
#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
def printMessages(start=ON):
    """
    Switch message printing ON or OFF
    """
    
    if start:
        monitorManager.addMessageCallback(ANY_JOB, 
            ANY_MESSAGE_TYPE, simpleCB, None)
    else:
        monitorManager.removeMessageCallback(ANY_JOB, 
            ANY_MESSAGE_TYPE, simpleCB, None)


6.8.2 Waiting for a job to complete

You can use the Job object's waitForCompletion method to synchronize your script with a job that has been submitted. If you call the waitForCompletion method after you submit a job, the script waits until the analysis is complete before continuing. When the script continues, you should check the status of the job to ensure that the job completed successfully and did not abort. For example, the script described in “Reproducing the cantilever beam tutorial,” Section 8.1, uses waitForCompletion to ensure that the analysis job has finished executing successfully before the script opens the resulting output database and displays a contour plot of the results.

In the following example, the script submits myJob1 and waits for it to complete before submitting myJob2.

myJob1 = mdb.Job(name='Job-1')
myJob2 = mdb.Job(name='Job-2')
myJob1.submit()
myJob1.waitForCompletion()
myJob2.submit()
myJob2.waitForCompletion()
If you submit more than one job and then issue a waitForCompletion statement, Abaqus waits until the job associated with the waitForCompletion statement is complete before checking the status of the second job. If the second job has already completed, the waitForCompletion method returns immediately. In the following example the script will not check the status of myJob2 until myJob1 has completed.
myJob1 = mdb.Job(name='Job-1')
myJob2 = mdb.Job(name='Job-2')
myJob1.submit()
myJob2.submit()
myJob1.waitForCompletion()
myJob2.waitForCompletion()


6.8.3 An example of a callback function

The following section describes how you can use a callback function as an alternative to the waitForCompletion method described in “Waiting for a job to complete,” Section 6.8.2. The example uses messaging commands to synchronize a script with an Abaqus/Standard, Abaqus/Explicit, or Abaqus/CFD analysis. Messaging commands set up a callback function that monitors messages from Abaqus/Standard, Abaqus/Explicit, and Abaqus/CFD. When the desired message is received, the callback function executes.

The example uses a callback function that responds to all messages from Abaqus/Standard, Abaqus/Explicit, and Abaqus/CFD. The function decides what action to take based on the messages received from a job called Deform. If the message indicates that the analysis job is complete, the function opens the output database created by the job and displays a default contour plot.

#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
# Define the callback function

from abaqus import *
from abaqusConstants import *

import visualization

def onMessage(jobName, messageType, data, viewport):
   if ((messageType==ABORTED) or (messageType==ERROR)):
       print 'Solver problem; stop execution of callback function'
   elif (messageType==JOB_COMPLETED):
       odb = visualization.openOdb(path=jobName + '.odb')
       viewport.setValues(displayedObject=odb)
       viewport.odbDisplay.display.setValues(plotState=CONTOURS_ON_DEF)

       viewport.odbDisplay.commonOptions.setValues(renderStyle=FILLED)

The following statements show how the example script can be modified to use the callback function. After the first statement is executed, the callback function responds to all messages from the job named Deform. The final two statements create the job and submit it for analysis; the example script has now finished executing. When the job is complete, the callback function opens the resulting output database and displays a contour plot.

...
myJobName = 'Deform'
monitorManager.addMessageCallback(jobName='myJobName',
    messageType=ANY_MESSAGE_TYPE, callback=onMessage,
    userData=myViewport)
myJob = mdb.Job(name=myJobName, model='Beam',
    description=jobDescription)
myJob.submit()
# End of example script.

You can use the removeMessageCallback method at the end of the callback function to remove it from the system. The arguments to the removeMessageCallback method must be identical to the arguments to the corresponding addMessageCallback command that set up the callback function.