Products: ABAQUS/Standard ABAQUS/Explicit
Benefits: Encryption of ABAQUS data files enables you to package proprietary model data for distribution in an encoded, password-protected format. You can also tailor the encryption to enable access only by end users with a license for a particular feature or from a particular site. Users that satisfy the access criteria, which includes a password and optional ABAQUS license feature and site ID, can run analyses with encrypted data by including the data file by reference in an input file or in another data file. Authorized users can decrypt an encrypted data file, which restores the file to its unencrypted format and thus allows users to examine or modify the file's contents.
Description: The abaqus encrypt execution procedure is intended for the encryption of data that you include by reference in input (.inp) files or in other data files. For example, you could encrypt a file that contains all of the proprietary material data for your model, then include the encrypted data file by reference in an unencrypted ABAQUS input file. You can encrypt any ASCII file. However, ABAQUS cannot run an encrypted ABAQUS input file directly; it must first be decrypted.
You can customize your encryption so that only users with a license for a particular ABAQUS feature or from a particular site can include or decrypt the file. For example, you can specify that only users with an ABAQUS/Standard license can access the file. You can also prevent decryption of an encrypted file by any user, regardless of their license and site; end users can still include these encrypted data files in an ABAQUS input file, provided that they know the encrypted file's password.
The abaqus decrypt execution procedure converts an encrypted data file back into its original, unencoded format.
Note: The intent of the ABAQUS encryption implementation is to prevent unauthorized use of encrypted input data, not to prevent disclosure of encrypted data to authorized users. Users of encrypted data must accept responsibility for the security of files produced from encrypted input and should consider restricting access to resulting analysis files.