This chapter discusses features related to creating your model, such as node and element definition in Abaqus/Standard or Abaqus/Explicit and part and assembly definition in Abaqus/CAE. It provides an overview of the following enhancements:

• “Substructures in Abaqus/CAE,” Section 4.1

• “Structural optimization in Abaqus/CAE,” Section 4.2

• “Assembled fasteners in Abaqus/CAE,” Section 4.3

• “Mapped analytical fields in Abaqus/CAE,” Section 4.4

• “Surface-based fluid cavities in Abaqus/Standard,” Section 4.5

• “Orientation distribution for connector elements,” Section 4.6

• “Adjusting nodal coordinates,” Section 4.7

• “Adjusting or redistributing the mass of an element set,” Section 4.8

• “Enhancements to the offset, extend, and blend face tools,” Section 4.9

• “Creating a wire-from-edge feature,” Section 4.10

• “Adding a point-to-point spline wire feature,” Section 4.11

• “Adding a mirror feature to a part,” Section 4.12

• “Diagnostics for modeling errors associated with mass properties,” Section 4.13

• “Thickness and material orientation distributions for membrane elements and sections,” Section 4.14

• “Composite layer thickness distribution for shell elements,” Section 4.15

• “Selecting elements by topology,” Section 4.16

• “Suppressing or deleting multiple features,” Section 4.17