1.4 Getting help

You may want to read additional information about ABAQUS/CAE features at various points during the tutorials. The context-sensitive help system allows you to locate relevant information quickly and easily. Context-sensitive help is available for every item in the main window and in all dialog boxes.

Note: 

  • On Windows platforms, the help system uses your default web browser to display the online documentation.

  • On UNIX and Linux platforms, the help system searches the system path first for Mozilla (including Firefox) and uses that web browser if it is available. If Mozilla is not found, the help system checks the system path for Netscape and uses that web browser if it is available. If neither browser is found in the system path, an error is displayed.

    The browser_type and browser_path variables can be set in the environment file to modify this behavior. For more information, see System customization parameters, Section 4.1.4 of the ABAQUS Installation and Licensing Guide.

To obtain context-sensitive help:

  1. From the main menu bar, select HelpOn Context.

    Tip:  You can also click the help tool to access context-sensitive help.

    The cursor changes to a question mark.

  2. Click any part of the main window except its frame.

    A help window appears in your browser window. The help window displays information about the item you selected.

  3. Scroll to the bottom of the help window.

    At the bottom of the window, a list of blue, underlined items appears. These items are links to the ABAQUS/CAE User's Manual.

  4. Click any one of the items.

    A book window appears in your default web browser. The window is arranged into four frames as follows:

    • The ABAQUS/CAE User's Manual appears in a text frame on the right side of the window. The manual is turned to the item that you selected.

    • Expand and Collapse buttons in the upper left frame allow you to easily expand several levels or collapse all levels of the table of contents.

    • An expandable table of contents is available on the lower left side of the window for easy navigation throughout the book.

    • The navigation frame at the top of the book window allows you to select another book from the entire ABAQUS documentation collection. The navigation frame also allows you to search the entire manual.

  5. Click any item in the table of contents.

    The text frame changes to reflect the item you selected.

  6. Click the book icons to expand and collapse the table of contents.

  7. In the search panel in the navigation frame, type any word that appears in the text frame on the right and click Search.

    When the search is complete, the table of contents frame displays the number of hits next to each topic heading and all hits become highlighted in the text frame. Click Next Match or Previous Match in the navigation frame to move through the document from one hit to the next.

    You can enter a single word or a phrase in the search panel, and you can use the [*] character as a wildcard. For detailed instructions on using the search capabilities of the online documentation, see Using ABAQUS Online Documentation.

  8. Close the web browser windows.