Python exception handling is described in “Exception handling,” Section 5.5.4. Python exception handling in the output database is identical to that in the model database. The exceptions thrown are of type OdbError; for example, the following script catches exceptions thrown when the python interface in not successful in opening an output database:

invalidOdbName = "invalid.odb"
try:
    myOdb = openOdb(invalidOdbName)
    except OdbError,e:
    print 'Abaqus error message: %s' % str(e)
    print 'customized error message here'
except:
    print 'Unknown Exception. '