Summary of Abaqus Scripting Interface changes between Abaqus 6.6 and Abaqus 6.7

This section summarizes the changes and the additions that have been made to the Abaqus Scripting Interface between Abaqus 6.6 and Abaqus 6.7. 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.

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.

Adaptivity commands

No changes.

Amplitude commands

No changes.

Animation commands
Annotation commands

No changes.

Assembly commands
Basic geometry commands
Beam section profile commands

No changes.

Boundary condition commands

No changes.

Canvas commands
Connector commands
Constraint commands

The EmbeddedRegion method of the EmbeddedRegion object has one new optional argument, and its optional arguments are presented in a different order than in Abaqus 6.6.

mdb.models[name].EmbeddedRegion(name, embeddedRegion, hostRegion<, weightFactorTolerance, toleranceMethod, absoluteTolerance, fractionalTolerance>)

customKernel module

No changes.

Datum commands

No changes.

Display Group commands
Display Options commands

session.viewports[name].assemblyDisplay.symbolOptions.setValues(<otherSymbolSize, arrowSymbolSize, faceSymbolDensity, edgeSymbolDensity, meshSymbolFraction, showFields>)

Edit Mesh commands
Engineering feature commands

No changes.

Feature commands
Field commands

No changes.

Filter commands

No changes.

History and Field Report commands

No changes.

Interaction commands

In the NormalBehavior method of the NormalBehavior object, the contactStiffness argument is now an optional argument. This argument was required in Abaqus 6.6.

Job commands

No changes.

Load commands

mdb.models[name].SurfaceTraction(name, createStepName, region, magnitude<, distributionType, field, amplitude, angle, axis, localCsys, userCsys, directionVector, follower, resultant, traction>)

Load Case commands

No changes.

Material commands

mdb.models[name].materials[name].Damping(<alpha, beta, composite, structural>)

Mdb commands
Mesh commands
Messaging commands

No changes.

Miscellaneous commands

No changes.

Model commands

No changes.

Odb commands
Odb Display commands
Part commands
Partition commands

No changes.

Path and Probe commands

No changes.

Plot Options commands
Plug-in commands

No changes.

Pre-defined Field commands

No changes.

Print commands
Property commands
Region commands
Section commands
Session commands
Sketcher commands
Step commands (step)
Step commands (miscellaneous)

No changes.

Step (output) commands

No changes.

Text Representation commands

No changes.

Utility commands
View commands
XY commands

The following new XY objects have been added:
session.charts[name].area
session.charts[name].area.style
session.charts[name].axes1[i]
session.charts[name].axes1[i].axisData
session.charts[name]
session.defaultChartOptions
session.defaultPlot
session.charts[name].legend
session.LineStyle
session.QuantityType
session.SymbolStyle
session.TextStyle
session.xyPlots[name].title