This chapter discusses using the Abaqus Scripting Interface to write user scripts. Abaqus makes every attempt to be backward compatible and can execute most Abaqus Scripting Interface scripts from previous releases of Abaqus. However, backward compatibility is not guaranteed beyond several releases of Abaqus, and it is recommended that you upgrade your commands to the most recent release. A complete list of Abaqus Scripting Interface commands that have changed is included in Summary of Abaqus Scripting Interface changes between Abaqus 6.10 and Abaqus 6.11 in the Abaqus Scripting Reference Manual.

This chapter provides an overview of the following enhancements:

• “Support for NumPy library for Python in Abaqus,” Section 15.1

• “Setting the last main file to open on startup in the Abaqus PDE,” Section 15.2

• “Editing display and GUI preferences in the Abaqus Scripting Interface,” Section 15.3

• “Enabling and disabling GUI log recording from the command line,” Section 15.4

• “Enhanced control over watch list variables in the Abaqus PDE,” Section 15.5