This volume contains a complete description of the elements, material models, procedures, input specifications, etc. It is the basic reference document for Abaqus/Standard and Abaqus/Explicit, and it provides both input file usage and Abaqus/CAE usage information. This guide regularly refers to the Abaqus Analysis User's Manual, so you should have it available as you work through the examples.

This manual for Abaqus/CAE includes detailed descriptions of how to use Abaqus/CAE for model generation, analysis, and results evaluation and visualization. Abaqus/Viewer users should refer to the information on the Visualization module in this manual.

This manual contains instructions for navigating, viewing, and searching the Abaqus HTML and PDF documentation.

This manual contains detailed examples designed to illustrate the approaches and decisions needed to perform meaningful linear and nonlinear analysis. Many of the examples are worked with several different element types, mesh densities, and other variations. Typical cases are large motion of an elastic-plastic pipe hitting a rigid wall; inelastic buckling collapse of a thin-walled elbow; explosive loading of an elastic, viscoplastic thin ring; consolidation under a footing; buckling of a composite shell with a hole; and deep drawing of a metal sheet. It is generally useful to look for relevant examples in this manual and to review them when embarking on a new class of problem.

When you want to use a feature that you have not used before, you should look up one or more examples that use that feature. Then, use the example to familiarize yourself with the correct usage of the capability. To find an example that uses a certain feature, search the online documentation or use the abaqus findkeyword utility (see “Execution procedure for querying the keyword/problem database,” Section 3.2.11 of the Abaqus Analysis User's Manual, for more information).

All the input files associated with the examples are provided as part of the Abaqus installation. The abaqus fetch utility is used to extract sample Abaqus input files from the compressed archive files provided with the release (see “Execution procedure for fetching sample input files,” Section 3.2.12 of the Abaqus Analysis User's Manual, for more information). You can fetch any of the example files so that you can run the simulations yourself and review the results. You can also access the input files through the hyperlinks in the Abaqus Example Problems Manual.

This volume contains benchmark problems and analyses used to evaluate the performance of Abaqus; the tests are multiple element tests of simple geometries or simplified versions of real problems. The NAFEMS benchmark problems are included in this manual.

This volume contains basic test cases, providing verification of each individual program feature (procedures, output options, MPCs, etc.) against exact calculations and other published results. It may be useful to run these problems when learning to use a new capability. In addition, the supplied input data files provide good starting points to check the behavior of elements, materials, etc.

This volume contains detailed, precise discussions of all theoretical aspects of Abaqus. It is written to be understood by users with an engineering background.

This volume contains a complete description of all the input options that are available in Abaqus/Standard and Abaqus/Explicit.

This volume contains a complete description of all the user subroutines available for use in Abaqus analyses. It also discusses the utility routines that can be used when writing user subroutines.

This glossary defines technical terms as they apply to the Abaqus Unified FEA Product Suite.

This document contains brief descriptions of the new features available in the latest release of the Abaqus product line.

This document describes how to install Abaqus and how to configure the installation for particular circumstances. Some of this information, of most relevance to users, is also provided in the Abaqus Analysis User's Manual.

This document describes the QA procedures followed by SIMULIA. It is a controlled document, provided to customers who subscribe to either the Nuclear QA Program or the Quality Monitoring Service.

These notes are available on many topics to which Abaqus is applied. They are used in the technical seminars that are presented to help users improve their understanding and usage of Abaqus. While not intended as stand-alone tutorial material, they are sufficiently comprehensive that they can usually be used in that mode. The list of available lecture notes is included in the Documentation Price List or can be found on the Products page at www.simulia.com.

SIMULIA has a home page on the World Wide Web (www.simulia.com), containing a variety of useful information about the Abaqus suite of programs, including:

• Frequently asked questions

• Abaqus systems information and machine requirements

• Benchmark timing documents

• Error status reports

• Abaqus documentation price list

• Training seminar schedule

• Newsletters