Refine the part display in Abaqus/CAE

The default curve refinement is "Coarse" for all parts and instances displayed in Abaqus/CAE. Sometimes, it is not good enough to view a part or assembly with those "piecewise continuous curves". The option to refine the curve display locates in menu (Part levels)->View->Part Display Options->Curve refinement. A problem is that if you have many instances, you have to change this option for each individual part in order to have the entire assembly look good. One way to simplify this process is to use script


mdb.models['modelname'].parts['partname'].setValues(geometryRefinement=MEDIUM)

To change the refinement for all parts, just use the following loop:

model=mdb.models['modelname']
for part in model.parts.values():
     part.setValues(geometryRefinement=MEDIUM)

Increase the default Abaqus/Viewer Font Size

An article shows a tip to enlarge the default font size in Abaqus/Viewer. This issue is actually caused by incompatibility between different Windows systems. Windows XP doesn't suffer from this issue.  

"This week I will take a short break from the composites related content I have been writing about over the past few weeks to address an issue that has become slightly annoying with the latest releases of Abaqus/Viewer.  In the most recent versions of Abaqus/Viewer (6.10-x and up I believe) the default font size for the legend and the title/state blocks is so small that it is almost unreadable (even for my relatively young eyes...).  Inside of Abaqus/Viewer, adjusting the font size is very simple:

1. Click on "Viewport" in the top Menu Bar
2. Select "Viewport Annotation Options"
3. Click on either the "Legend", "Title Block", or "State Block" tabs
4. Click on the "Set Font..." button to adjust the font
5. You can even change all 3 at once by checking on the "Legend",  "Title Block", or "State Block" check boxes under the "Apply To" heading

However, doing this process each time you open Viewer is rather annoying.  To automatically set the font size to a larger size each time view opens, you can modify the Abaqus environment file.  For those that do not know what this is, it is a text file called "abaqus_v6.env" that is located in the Site folder of the Abaqus install directory (typically C:\SIMULIA\Abaqus\6.11-1\site or something similar).  The following 5 lines can be added to the bottom of the environment file so that the font size is larger by default.  I have found size 12 to be adequate and the following lines reflect that (however a larger number can be entered):

def onCaeStartup():
 session.viewports['Viewport: 1'].viewportAnnotationOptions.setValues(
    legendFont='-*-verdana-medium-r-normal-*-*-120-*-*-p-*-*-*',
    titleFont='-*-verdana-medium-r-normal-*-*-120-*-*-p-*-*-*',
    stateFont='-*-verdana-medium-r-normal-*-*-120-*-*-p-*-*-*')

Try to copy and paste the lines exactly like they are shown above, but if it is not possible, make sure the spacing (especially the indentation) and content is correct.  If these lines are entered incorrectly, Abaqus/Viewer may not start up correctly.  Don't worry though, you can't screw anything up.  If you are having problems and just can figure out what is being input incorrectly, you can simply delete the above lines and everything will be fine.  For the super paranoid, simply make a backup copy of your environment file before trying this...

With the def onCaeStarup(): line, many other default settings can be adjusted so that your Abaqus 'environment' is set up just the way you like.  Section 17.19 in the Abaqus Scripting Reference Manual provides many other Viewport Annotation Options commands and by opening your Abaqus replay (.rpy) file after you perform a series of adjustments in Viewer, you can view additional commands that set up your Viewer experience."

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