There are two ways you can make use of the ABAQUS GUI Toolkit—through the use of the plug-in architecture or by creating a custom application. The Plug-in toolset is layered on top of ABAQUS/CAE. First, the ABAQUS/CAE application is built, and then the Plug-in toolset searches specific directories for files that add items into the top level Plugins menu. The Plug-in toolset will probably meet your needs if you intend only to add functionality to the standard ABAQUS/CAE application, and it is sufficient to provide access to this functionality through the Plug-ins menu in the main menu bar. Plug-ins are described in detail in Part VIII, “Using plug-ins,” of the ABAQUS/CAE User's Manual.
In contrast, to create a customized application, you build the application from the ground up. You should write a customized application if, in addition to adding functionality to ABAQUS/CAE, you want to modify some standard features of ABAQUS/CAE. While creating a custom application offers the most flexibility, it requires more work than using the Plug-in toolset. However, a custom application allows you to modify aspects of an application that you cannot control using the Plug-in toolset. Specifically, a custom application allows you to do the following:
Remove ABAQUS/CAE modules or toolsets. When you create a custom application, you determine which modules and toolsets are loaded into the application and the order in which they appear.
Modify ABAQUS/CAE modules or toolsets. If you want to add or remove functionality from an ABAQUS/CAE module, you must derive your module from an ABAQUS/CAE module and then register your module instead of the ABAQUS/CAE module. You follow a similar procedure if you want to add or remove functionality from an ABAQUS/CAE toolset.
Change the application name and version numbers. When you create a custom application, you create a startup script that initializes the application object with the name of your application and its version numbers.
Control the startup command and license token used. When you create a custom application, you modify the site configuration file that defines the command used to start the application. You also modify the same site configuration file to specify the license token that is checked out when the application starts.