When you create a new part or import a part from a file containing geometry stored in a third-party format, you must choose the part's type. The three possible types are:
Deformable
Any arbitrarily shaped axisymmetric, two-dimensional, or three-dimensional part that you can create or import can be specified as a deformable part. A deformable part represents a part that can deform under load; the load can be mechanical, thermal, or electrical. By default, ABAQUS/CAE creates parts that are deformable.
Discrete rigid
A discrete rigid part is similar to a deformable part in that it can be any arbitrary shape. However, a discrete rigid part is assumed to be rigid and is used in contact analyses to model bodies that cannot deform.
Analytical rigid
An analytical rigid part is similar to a discrete rigid part in that it is used to represent a rigid surface in a contact analysis. However, the shape of an analytical rigid part is not arbitrary and must be formed from a set of sketched lines, arcs, and parabolas.
ABAQUS/CAE uses the following methods to determine the type of an imported part:
When you import a part from a file containing geometry stored in a third-party format, you can specify the part's type to be either deformable or discrete rigid.
When you import an orphan mesh from an output database, ABAQUS/CAE determines the type of the new part from the information stored in the output database.
When you import an orphan mesh from an input file, ABAQUS/CAE determines the type of the new part from the element type.
When you create an orphan mesh part in the Mesh module, the type of the orphan mesh part is the same as the type of the original part.
