ABAQUS/CAE loads the Visualization module automatically when you open an output database.

To perform many Visualization module functions, you can use either a menu item or a tool in the toolbox.

You can use the buttons in the prompt area to display the state of the model in each frame of the analysis.

The Visualization module has different plot modes. Each plot mode has options associated with it that you can use to control the appearance of the model in that mode. When you set options in one plot mode, they are not carried over to other plot modes. Customization options apply only to the current viewport and are not saved between sessions. You can use the Defaults button to restore the default plot options in each plot mode.

You use the viewport annotation options to customize the appearance of items that appear in all plots, such as the title block, the state block, and the orientation triad. The title block displays information about the analysis that generated the output database. The state block contains information about the step and increment being displayed.

In all plot modes ABAQUS selects a default variable to display from the field output portion of the output database. You can use the Field Output dialog box to select the variable to display.

You can display a time history animation from the data in an output database, or you can generate a scale factor animation based on a single increment of the results. You can animate a deformed, contour, symbol, or material orientation (time history animation only) plot; the animation uses the respective plot options to control the appearance of the model. You can customize these plots while the animation is running.

A symbol plot shows the magnitude and direction of a particular vector or tensor variable at a specified step and frame. By default, symbol plots display the magnitudes for vector variables and all principal components for tensor variables.

A material orientation plot shows the material directions of elements in your model at a specified step and frame of your analysis. Material orientations are displayed on an element-by-element basis at the material integration points, with no averaging across elements.

You can display an X–Y plot of any variable stored in the output database. In most cases the X-axis is assumed to be time.

You can use the Operate on XY Data dialog box to create new X–Y data objects based on operations on existing data objects.

You can use the Query toolset to probe a model or X–Y plot. You can write the values you obtain to a file.