Searching for contact pairs

Once you have indicated the appropriate contact criteria, Abaqus/CAE searches your model to locate the surfaces that meet those criteria. For a discussion of how Abaqus/CAE interprets search criteria and detects contact pair candidates, see Use of the contact detection algorithm.

Related Topics
Understanding contact and constraint detection
Using contact and constraint detection

  1. From the main menu, select either InteractionFind contact pairs or ConstraintFind contact pairs.

    Tip: You can also find contact pairs using the tool in the Interaction module toolbox.

    Abaqus/CAE displays the contact detection dialog box.

  2. Enter the search parameters as described in Specifying search criteria for contact detection.

  3. Click Find Contact Pairs.

  4. Abaqus/CAE searches for potential contact pairs. When the search is complete, Abaqus/CAE populates the contact pair candidates table.

    To abort a search before it is complete, click Stop in the prompt area.