ABAQUS/Standard is a general-purpose analysis product that can solve a wide range of linear and nonlinear problems involving the static, dynamic, thermal, and electrical response of components. This product is discussed in detail in this guide. ABAQUS/Standard solves a system of equations implicitly at each solution “increment.” In contrast, ABAQUS/Explicit marches a solution forward through time in small time increments without solving a coupled system of equations at each increment (or even forming a global stiffness matrix).

ABAQUS/Explicit is a special-purpose analysis product that uses an explicit dynamic finite element formulation. It is suitable for modeling brief, transient dynamic events, such as impact and blast problems, and is also very efficient for highly nonlinear problems involving changing contact conditions, such as forming simulations. ABAQUS/Explicit is discussed in detail in this guide.

ABAQUS/CAE (Complete ABAQUS Environment) is an interactive, graphical environment for ABAQUS. It allows models to be created quickly and easily by producing or importing the geometry of the structure to be analyzed and decomposing the geometry into meshable regions. Physical and material properties can be assigned to the geometry, together with loads and boundary conditions. ABAQUS/CAE contains very powerful options to mesh the geometry and to verify the resulting analysis model. Once the model is complete, ABAQUS/CAE can submit, monitor, and control the analysis jobs. The Visualization module can then be used to interpret the results. ABAQUS/CAE is discussed in this guide.

ABAQUS/Viewer is a subset of ABAQUS/CAE that contains only the postprocessing capabilities of the Visualization module. The discussions of the Visualization module in this guide apply equally to ABAQUS/Viewer.

ABAQUS/Aqua is a set of optional capabilities that can be added to ABAQUS/Standard. It is intended for the simulation of offshore structures, such as oil platforms. Some of the optional capabilities include the effects of wave and wind loading and buoyancy. ABAQUS/Aqua is not discussed in this guide.

ABAQUS/Design is a set of optional capabilities that can be added to ABAQUS/Standard to perform design sensitivity calculations. ABAQUS/Design is not discussed in this guide.

ABAQUS/AMS is an optional capability that can be added to ABAQUS/Standard. It uses the automatic multi-level substructuring (AMS) eigensolver during a natural frequency extraction. ABAQUS/AMS is not discussed in this guide.

ABAQUS/Foundation offers more efficient access to the linear static and dynamic analysis functionality in ABAQUS/Standard. ABAQUS/Foundation is not discussed in this guide.

The ABAQUS Interface for MOLDFLOW translates finite element model information from a MOLDFLOW analysis to write a partial ABAQUS input file. The ABAQUS Interface for MOLDFLOW is not discussed in this guide.

The ABAQUS Interface for MSC.ADAMS allows ABAQUS finite element models to be included as flexible components within the MSC.ADAMS family of products. The interface is based on the component mode synthesis formulation of ADAMS/Flex. The ABAQUS Interface for MSC.ADAMS is not discussed in this guide.

ABAQUS provides the following translators: