Summary of Abaqus Scripting Interface changes between Abaqus 6.7 and Abaqus 6.8

This section summarizes the changes and the additions that have been made to the Abaqus Scripting Interface between Abaqus 6.7 and Abaqus 6.8. SIMULIA makes every attempt to have the Abaqus Scripting Interface be backward compatible, and Abaqus can execute most Abaqus Scripting Interface scripts from previous releases of Abaqus. However, backward compatibility is not guaranteed beyond two releases of Abaqus, and it is recommended that you upgrade your commands to the most recent release.

To help you determine the status of your scripts, Abaqus displays a dialog box listing the deprecated commands when you execute the script from the main menu using FileRun Script. You are advised to upgrade scripts that contain deprecated commands as soon as possible. To run the upgrade utility:

abaqus python -m upgradeScript [options] scriptName [scriptName ...]

scriptName can be either a file or a directory. The options for the upgrade utility are:

-fileNames fileName Read a list of file names from the file specified.

-searchSubdirectories Search any subdirectories (if any of the script names are directories). By default, subdirectories are searched.

-logfileName logFileName Specify the name of the log file.

-backup Whether to make backup versions of the upgraded files. By default, no backup versions are created.

-preview Preview the changes to the file instead of changing the file.

-diffExecutable application The application used to display the differences between the script and the upgraded script. By default, the differences are displayed by a web browser.

The upgrade utility upgrades your scripts to the most recent release of Abaqus, regardless of when they were created. The upgrade utility upgrades both kernel commands and GUI commands. If scriptName is a directory, the upgrade utility upgrades each script in the directory. For example,

abaqus python -m upgradeScript -preview tireSlip.py tireWear

would preview all of the upgrades to the tireSlip.py script and to all of the scripts in the tireWear directory.

More options are available if you use the upgradeScript method in an Abaqus Scripting Interface script to upgrade your scripts. For more information, see “Upgrade script commands,” Section 49.10. In addition, an Abaqus plug-in is available that provides a graphical interface to the upgradeScript method. For more information, see “Upgrading a script,” Section 77.5 of the Abaqus/CAE User's Manual.

Alternatively, you can run the following upgrade utilities from the command line interface. The same options are available as for the upgradeScript function.

The upgradeScript6M_6N utility allow you to upgrade a kernel script from one release to another (where M and N are release numbers); for example,
```
abaqus python –m upgradeScript67_68 filenames
```
The upgradeGuiScript6M_6N utility allows you to upgrade a GUI script from one release to another; for example,
```
abaqus python –m upgradeGuiScript67_68 filenames
```

In the following list of modified commands, the full path to the method is listed along with the required and optional arguments. Arguments enclosed within angle brackets, “< >”, are optional arguments. The syntax of the commands is as follows:

(Blue bold text)	New method or argument.
(Red italic text)	Removed method or argument.
(Green italic text)	Changed argument; for example, the argument type has changed or the possible values of the SymbolicConstant have changed.

You can click on a method to view its description in the command reference. Refer to the Abaqus 6.7 Scripting Command Reference manual for a description of methods that have been removed.