You can add a skin reinforcement to selected faces of a three-dimensional solid or to an edge of an axisymmetric part. The skin is a property of the part or region and is not visible in the viewport. When you mesh the part, the skin and the solid have separate elements; however, they share nodes.
You must create a material and a section (a homogeneous shell section, a composite shell section, a membrane section, a surface section, or a gasket section) before you create a skin. After you have created a skin in the Property module, you must assign an element type to the skin in the Mesh module. When you are prompted to select the regions to be assigned element types, you must select the selection filter tool 
that appears in the prompt area and then select Skins from the list of objects to filter. If you assign a shell section to a skin, you must assign shell elements to the skin. Similarly, if you assign a membrane, surface, or gasket section, you must assign membrane, surface, or gasket elements.
To create a skin reinforcement:
From the main menu bar in the Property module, select Special
SkinCreate.
In the Create Skin dialog box that appears, name the skin and click Continue.
Select the face or faces on which the skin will be created.
The Edit Skin dialog box appears. The region to which you are applying the skin is highlighted in the viewport.
In the dialog box, select a section to associate with the skin reinforcement. If desired, click Create to create a section; see “Creating and editing sections,” Section 12.8, for more information.
If desired, enter an offset from the selected face or faces. The offset can be negative or positive. A negative offset from a shell or an axisymmetric part indicates on which side the skin is positioned. A negative offset from a solid indicates that the skin is embedded in the solid.
The global coordinate system determines the default material orientations. To specify a material orientation for the skin reinforcement, click Edit.
Specify the local material coordinate system using one of the following methods:
Click Datum CSYS List from the prompt area to select a name from a list of datum coordinate systems.
Select a datum coordinate system in the viewport.
Click Use Default Orientation from the prompt area to reset a previously assigned material orientation back to the global coordinate system.
ABAQUS/CAE displays the local coordinate system specified for the region in the viewport.
From the buttons in the prompt area, select the datum coordinate system axis that approximates the direction of the shell normal, and enter an additional rotation, if applicable.
ABAQUS/CAE applies the additional rotation, if any, and displays the resulting material orientation applied to the region in the viewport.
If the displayed material orientation is correct, click OK in the prompt area. If you want to change the orientation, click the backup button (
) and change the orientation as necessary.
For more information, see “Assigning a material orientation,” Section 12.9.4.
The global coordinate system determines the default rebar reference orientations. To specify a rebar reference orientation for the skin reinforcement, click Edit. Rebar reference orientations are not applicable to gasket sections.
Specify the local coordinate system using one of the following methods:
Click Datum CSYS List from the prompt area to select a name from a list of datum coordinate systems.
Select a datum coordinate system in the viewport.
Click Use Default Orientation from the prompt area to reset a previously assigned rebar reference orientation back to the global coordinate system.
ABAQUS/CAE displays the local coordinate system specified for the region in the viewport.
From the buttons in the prompt area, select the datum coordinate system axis that approximates the direction of the shell normal, and enter an additional rotation, if applicable.
ABAQUS/CAE applies the additional rotation, if any, and displays the resulting rebar reference orientation applied to the region in the viewport.
If the displayed rebar reference orientation is correct, click OK in the prompt area. If you want to change the orientation, click the backup button () and change the orientation as necessary.
Click OK to create the skin and to close the Edit Skin dialog box.