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# 3.1.1 EXECUTION PROCEDURE FOR Abaqus: OVERVIEW

# Overview

Abaqus is executed by using the Abaqus execution procedure. In the following discussion the command to run the execution procedure is assumed to be abaqus. However, you can customize the execution procedure to run Abaqus using any alias you choose. (See the Abaqus Installation and Licensing Guide for details.)

The abaqus command is described in “Execution procedures,” Section 3.2. The following sections contain further information about running Abaqus jobs:

• “Using the Abaqus environment settings,” Section 3.3.1   
• “Managing memory and disk use in Abaqus,” Section 3.4.1   
• “Parallel execution,” Section 3.5   
• “File extensions used by Abaqus,” Section 3.6.1   
• “Fortran unit numbers used by Abaqus,” Section 3.7.1

# Conventions

The following conventions are used in these sections:

• Each discussion includes a “Command summary” section that provides the syntax for the command in the left column and the syntax for its options in the right column. The full command must appear first, followed by the options. In some cases the command has multiple words, such as abaqus cae; you must enter all words of the command before issuing any option statements.   
• Options are presented in boldface. They can appear in any order and can be abbreviated.   
• Default options are underlined ( \_\_ ).   
• Items enclosed in square brackets ([ ]) are optional.   
• Items appearing in a list separated by bars ( | ) are mutually exclusive.   
• One value must be selected from a list of values enclosed by curly brackets ({ }).   
• You must supply values in italics.   
• Blanks are used as separators between options and must not precede nor follow an equal sign.   
• An alternate syntax of -option value can be used instead of the option=value format.

The abaqus procedure will prompt for any information required that is not provided on the command line. If abaqus is typed with no options, prompts are issued for all options.

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# Environment settings

The Abaqus execution procedure uses environment parameters to customize the execution of a job. These settings can be changed using one of the Abaqus environment files: custom\_v6.env or abaqus\_v6.env. See “Using the Abaqus environment files,” Section 4.1 of the Abaqus Installation and Licensing Guide for more details.

If the same job parameter is defined in more than one environment file or is defined more than once within the same environment file, the last definition encountered will be used. Some exceptions to this rule are noted in “Using the Abaqus environment settings,” Section 3.3.1. These environment files can be used to customize the behavior of Abaqus, including modification of the default options. See “Using the Abaqus environment settings,” Section 3.3.1, for further information on the environment files.

# Selecting TCP/UDP port numbers

Several of the execution procedure command line options, such as port and listenerport, require that you specify a port number. TCP/UDP port numbers can range from 0 to 65535.

Port numbers 0 to 1023 are well-known ports used by system processes (such as FTP, SSH, SMTP, etc.) and should never be used. Port numbers 1024 to 49151 are registered ports with the Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA) by software vendors. These ports can be used, but you should be careful that you are not conflicting with any software installed on your system that may be using this port. Port numbers 49152 to 65535 are unreserved and can be used freely, as long as no other application uses them.

Ports may be blocked by a firewall. Contact your system administrator to ensure that the ports that you want to specify are not blocked.

You can use the netstat command to obtain information on TCP/UDP network connections.

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# 3.2 Execution procedures

• “Obtaining information,” Section 3.2.1   
• “Abaqus/Standard, Abaqus/Explicit, and Abaqus/CFD execution,” Section 3.2.2   
• “SIMULIA Co-Simulation Engine director execution,” Section 3.2.3   
• “Abaqus/Standard, Abaqus/Explicit, Abaqus/CFD, AND FMU co-simulation execution,” Section 3.2.4   
• “Dymola model execution,” Section 3.2.5   
• “SIMULIA Co-Simulation Engine FMU execution,” Section 3.2.6   
• “Abaqus/CAE execution,” Section 3.2.7   
• “Abaqus/Viewer execution,” Section 3.2.8   
• “Topology optimization execution,” Section 3.2.9   
• “Python execution,” Section 3.2.10   
• “Parametric studies,” Section 3.2.11   
• “Abaqus documentation,” Section 3.2.12   
• “Licensing utilities,” Section 3.2.13   
• “ASCII translation of results (.fil) files,” Section 3.2.14   
• “Joining results (.fil) files,” Section 3.2.15   
• “Querying the keyword/problem database,” Section 3.2.16   
• “Fetching sample input files,” Section 3.2.17   
• “Making user-defined executables and subroutines,” Section 3.2.18   
• “Output database upgrade utility,” Section 3.2.19   
• “SIM database utilities,” Section 3.2.20   
• “Translating ODB output database files to SIM format,” Section 3.2.21   
• “Generating output database reports,” Section 3.2.22   
• “Joining output database (.odb) files from restarted analyses,” Section 3.2.23   
• “Combining output from substructures,” Section 3.2.24   
• “Combining data from multiple output databases,” Section 3.2.25   
• “Network output database file connector,” Section 3.2.26   
• “Mapping thermal and magnetic loads,” Section 3.2.27   
• “Element matrix assembly utility,” Section 3.2.28   
• “Fixed format conversion utility,” Section 3.2.29   
• “Translating Nastran bulk data files to Abaqus input files,” Section 3.2.30   
• “Translating Abaqus files to Nastran bulk data files,” Section 3.2.31

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• “Translating ANSYS input files to partial Abaqus input files,” Section 3.2.32   
• “Translating PAM-CRASH input files to partial Abaqus input files,” Section 3.2.33   
• “Translating RADIOSS input files to partial Abaqus input files,” Section 3.2.34   
• “Translating Abaqus output database files to Nastran Output2 results files,” Section 3.2.35   
• “Translating LS-DYNA data files to Abaqus input files,” Section 3.2.36   
• “Exchanging Abaqus data with ZAERO,” Section 3.2.37   
• “Translating Abaqus data to MSC.ADAMS modal neutral files,” Section 3.2.38   
• “Translating an Abaqus substructure to a SIMPACK flexible body,” Section 3.2.39   
• “Translating an Abaqus substructure to an EXCITE flexible body,” Section 3.2.40   
• “Translating Moldflow data to Abaqus input files,” Section 3.2.41   
• “Encrypting and decrypting Abaqus input data,” Section 3.2.42   
• “Job execution control,” Section 3.2.43   
• “Hardware system verification process,” Section 3.2.44

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# 3.2.1 OBTAINING INFORMATION

Products: Abaqus/Standard Abaqus/Explicit

# Reference

• “Execution procedure for Abaqus: overview,” Section 3.1.1

# Overview

The Abaqus execution procedure can be used to obtain help regarding command syntax or information about the installation and computing environment.

# Command summary

```typescript
abaqus {help | information={environment | local | memory | release | support | system | all} [job=job-name] | whereami} 
```

# Command line options

#

This option prints a summary of the abaqus command syntax.

# information

This option writes information about the installation and the environment that is in effect to the screen. The following information is output for all information requests: the current release, the directory in which Abaqus is located, and the directory in which the information files are located.

If information=environment, the current settings of the environment file options are displayed.

If information=local, the local installation notes are output.

If information=memory, some suggestions for setting memory parameters for analysis jobs are output.

If information=release, information is provided about where to locate the current release notes.

If information=support, information on diagnosing hardware-related issues is provided. Please send this information to systems support when requesting assistance.

If information=system, information is provided about system software and hardware resources (operating system level, compiler levels, processor type, graphics board, memory, etc).

If information=all, information on all of the above information topics is output.

# job

If a job-name is specified, the information text is written to the file job-name.log.

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# whereami

This option prints the location of the Abaqus release directory.

# Examples

Use the following command to display the local installation notes:

abaqus information=local

The following command will write the local installation notes to the file support.log:

abaqus information=local job=support

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# 3.2.2 Abaqus/Standard, Abaqus/Explicit, AND Abaqus/CFD EXECUTION

Products: Abaqus/Standard Abaqus/Explicit Abaqus/CFD

# Reference

• “Execution procedure for Abaqus: overview,” Section 3.1.1

# Overview

Abaqus/Standard, Abaqus/Explicit, and Abaqus/CFD are executed by running the Abaqus execution procedure. Several parameters can be set either on the command line or in the environment file (see “Using the Abaqus environment settings,” Section 3.3.1). Alternatively, you can use the convenient Abaqus/CAE user interface to submit an Abaqus analysis from an input file and set the analysis parameters; see “Understanding analysis jobs,” Section 19.2 of the Abaqus/CAE User’s Guide.

Abaqus enforces a character limit on file names. For any command line reference to a file, the total length of the file name, including the path description, cannot exceed 256 characters.

Command summary   
```ini
abaqus
job=job-name
[analysis | datacheck | parametercheck | continue |
convert={select | odb | state | all} |
recover | syntaxcheck | information={environment | local |
memory | release | support | system | all}]
[input=input-file] [user={source-file | object-file}]
[oldjob=oldjob-name] [fil={append | new}]
[globalmodel={results file-name | ODB output database file-name |
SIM database file-name}]
[cpus=number-of-cpus] [parallel={domain | loop}]
[domains=number-of-domains]
[dynamic_load_balancing]
[mp_mode={mpi | threads}]
[standard_parallel={all | solver}]
[gpus=number-of-gpgpus] [memory=memory-size]
[interactive | background | queue[=queue-name] [after=time]]
[double={explicit | both | off | constraint}]
[scratch=scratch-dir]
[output_precision={single | full}]
[resultsformat={odb | sim | both}]
[field={odb | sim}]
[history={odb | sim | csv}] 
```

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```ini
[port=co-simulation port-number] [host=co-simulation hostname]
[csedirector=Co-Simulation Engine director host:port-number]
[timeout=co-simulation timeout value in seconds]
[unconnected_regions={yes | no}] 
```

# Command line options

# Required option

job

The value of this option specifies the name of all files generated during the run and the name of files that are read in the continue, convert, and recover phases.

If this option is omitted from the command line, you will be prompted for its value (except when only the informational options described in “Obtaining information,” Section 3.2.1, are used). If the input option is not supplied, the procedure will look for an input file called job-name.inp in the current directory.

# Mutually exclusive options that determine which phases of an analysis are performed

All options are order independent. If none of these options is present, the analysis option is assumed. The convert option is an exception to the mutual exclusion rule: convert can appear with any option except datacheck, parametercheck, syntaxcheck, and information. The convert and parametercheck options are not available for Abaqus/CFD.

analysis

This option indicates that a complete Abaqus analysis (or a restart of an Abaqus analysis) is to be performed.

datacheck

This option indicates that the run is for data checking only. No analysis will be performed. If this option is used, all files necessary to continue the analysis are saved.

parametercheck

This option indicates that the run is for input parameter checking only (parameter definitions must have been used; see “Parametric input,” Section 1.4.1). No analysis or data checking will be performed. This option is not applicable for Abaqus/CFD.

continue

This option indicates that the run is to begin at the point at which a previous data check run ended.

convert

The value of this parameter indicates which files will be postprocessed. This option is not applicable for Abaqus/CFD.

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Results can be converted either immediately following an analysis run, as a separate run subsequent to an analysis run, or while an analysis is running as follows:

1. To run an analysis including a subsequent conversion of the results, use the convert option in conjunction with the job and analysis options.   
2. To convert the results of a previously run analysis, use the convert option in conjunction with the job option.   
3. To convert results from a job that is currently running, use the convert option in conjunction with the oldjob option (to name the running job) and the job option (to supply a new name for the files generated by the convert option).

If convert=select, the Abaqus/Explicit selected results file (job-name.sel) will be converted into a standard Abaqus results file (job-name.fil). If the analysis is run in parallel with parallel=domain, the separate selected results files (job-name.sel.n) will be converted into a single selected results file (job-name.sel) prior to being converted into a standard Abaqus results file.

If convert=odb, the output database (job-name.odb) will be converted using the postprocessing calculator (see “The postprocessing calculator,” Section 4.3.1). This conversion is necessary only if the types of output listed in “The postprocessing calculator,” Section 4.3.1, are requested.

If convert=state, the separate Abaqus/Explicit state files (job-name.abq.n) will be converted into a single Abaqus/Explicit state file (job-name.abq) if the analysis is run in parallel with parallel=domain.

If convert=all, all of the applicable convert options will be executed.

# recover

This option applies only to Abaqus/Explicit. It indicates that an analysis is to be restarted at the last available step and increment in the state file. This capability is available to restart after a catastrophic failure, such as exceeding a CPU limit or a disk quota (see “Restarting an analysis,” Section 9.1.1). If the original analysis was run in parallel with parallel=domain, it must be restarted with parallel=domain and the same number of processors.

# syntaxcheck

This option indicates that the run is for checking the syntax of the input file only. This option does not use any license tokens. No analysis will be performed, and the continue option cannot be used to continue with an analysis. Only the data (.dat) and output database (.odb) files are generated for viewing. In an Abaqus/Explicit analysis, the model data in the output database may not be complete.

# information

This option writes information about the installation and the environment that is in effect to the screen or to the file job-name.log. For output information for each value of this option, see “Obtaining information,” Section 3.2.1. If the information option is used in conjunction with the analysis option, the job must be run in the background to write the information text to the log file.

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# Additional options available for the analysis module

# input

This option is used to specify the input file name, which may be given with or without the .inp extension (if the extension is not supplied, Abaqus will append it automatically). If this option is not supplied, the procedure will look for an input file called job-name.inp in the current directory. If job-name.inp cannot be found, the procedure will prompt for the input file name.

# user

This option specifies the name of a source or object file that contains any user subroutines to be used in the analysis. The name of the user routine may contain a path name and may be given with or without a file extension. Abaqus/Standard, Abaqus/Explicit, and Abaqus/CFD accept user subroutines written in C, C++, or Fortran.

If an extension is given, the program will take the appropriate action based on the file type. If the file name has no extension, the program will search for a C, C++, or Fortran source file. If the source file does not exist, an object file will be searched for instead. The execution procedure creates a shared library using the user subroutine file that is used by the analysis during execution.

If the same user subroutine will be needed often, consider setting the usub\_lib\_dir environment file parameter and using the abaqus make execution procedure to create a shared library containing the user subroutine. This will avoid the need to recompile and/or relink the user subroutine each time it is needed. The user option is not required if the user subroutine called by the analysis is contained in the user library. User libraries contained in the directory given by the usub\_lib\_dir environment file parameter will not be used if the user option is specified.

The user option cannot be used to specify an object file when the double option is used to run an Abaqus/Explicit analysis because Abaqus/Explicit double precision runs need both single precision and double precision objects. In this case you must set the usub\_lib\_dir environment file parameter and place the single and double precision object files in the specified directory; alternatively, you can supply the user subroutine source.

# oldjob

This option specifies the name of the files from a previous run from which a restart or postprocessing (Abaqus/Standard only; see “Recovering additional results output from restart data in Abaqus/Standard” in “Output,” Section 4.1.1) run is to be started or from which results are to be imported. A path or file extension is not allowed. This option is required when a restart, postprocessing, symmetric model generation, or import analysis reads data from the restart or the results file. The oldjob-name must be different from the current job-name.

# fil

This option specifies whether the data from the old results file specified in a restart run are included at the beginning of the new results file (default). If fil=new is used, the new results file will contain only the data from the point in the analysis where the restart occurred. This feature is used for Abaqus/Standard runs to join the output from restarted analyses into a single, continuous results file. Non-restart jobs
