Download Getting Started with Abaqus: Interactive Edition

Appendix D: Abaqus/CAE: A POSTPROCESSING TUTORIAL
Customizing a model plot
A common set of plot options for all plot states—undeformed, deformed, contour, etc.—is provided to
allow you to customize the appearance of a plot. Regardless of the plot state, customization options
apply only to the current viewport and are not saved between sessions.
To customize a model plot:
1. From the main menu bar, select Options→Common.
Abaqus displays the Common Plot Options dialog box.
2. By default, Abaqus fills the model in green and displays element labels using cyan text. You will
change the color of the element labels from cyan to red and display them. From the Common Plot
Options dialog box, click the Labels tab and do the following:
a. Toggle on Show element labels.
b. Click Apply.
Abaqus displays the element numbering using cyan text.
c. Click the color sample
for the element labels.
Abaqus/CAE displays the Select Color dialog box.
d. Click the RGB tab and set the red, green, and blue values to 255, 0, and 0, respectively.
Tip: You can also select red from the colors near the bottom of the dialog box or use
any of the other available selection methods.
e. Click OK to accept your selection.
Abaqus/CAE closes the Select Color dialog box and updates the color sample to red.
f. Click OK.
The color of the element labels changes from cyan to red, and the Common Plot Options
dialog box closes.
D.5 Displaying the deformed model shape
You can display a plot of your model showing the deformed shape during each frame of the analysis.
When you request a deformed shape plot of data from a force-displacement analysis, Abaqus plots the
nodal displacements by default; but you can display any nodal vector field output variable that is available
on the output database. You can also use the plot options to customize the appearance of a deformed plot.
Displaying a deformed shape plot
Most procedures in Abaqus/Standard or Abaqus/Explicit write displacement to the output database by
default and also select displacement for the nodal vector quantity to use as the default deformed variable.
D–6
Abaqus ID:
Printed on: