Creating substructures in your model database

You can create substructures in Abaqus/CAE by following these general steps:

  1. Create or open the model database in which you want to specify substructures in Abaqus/CAE.

  2. In the Step module, create a Substructure generation step. Abaqus/CAE converts the entire model into a single substructure. For more information, see Generating a substructure.

  3. In the Load module, create Retained nodal dofs boundary conditions to determine which degrees of freedom will be retained as external degrees of freedom on the substructure. You can also define a load case in the substructure generation step if you want to apply a load to the substructure at a location other than its retained degrees of freedom. For more information, see Specifying the retained nodal degrees of freedom and load cases for a substructure.

  4. In the Job module, create a new job and submit the analysis.

    When you perform an analysis of an assembly that includes substructure data, Abaqus/CAE creates separate output databases for the results of each substructure part instance and does not include the results from the substructure part instances in the output database for the assembly. The Visualization module provides tools that enable you to integrate the results from the substructure components back into the results from the assembly; for more information, see Visualizing substructure output.