2.5 Using the mouse with ABAQUS/CAE

Many of the procedures in the ABAQUS/CAE documentation involve using one or more of the three mouse buttons. The following list explains the importance of each mouse button when interacting with ABAQUS/CAE:

Mouse button 1

You use mouse button 1 to select objects in the viewport, to expand pull-down menus, and to select items from menus. The instructions “click,” “select,” and “drag” in the documentation refer to mouse button 1.

Mouse button 2

Clicking mouse button 2 in the viewport signifies that you have finished the current task. For example:

Selecting entities from the model: when you create a node set, you select the nodes to include in the set. Clicking mouse button 2 indicates that your selection is complete and you are ready to create the set.

Using a tool: click mouse button 2 to indicate that you have finished with a view manipulation tool.

In addition, clicking mouse button 2 in the viewport is equivalent to clicking the highlighted button in the prompt area. For example, if you tried to select nodes from your model and ABAQUS/CAE displayed the following prompt, clicking mouse button 2 would have the same effect as clicking OK:

Mouse button 3

You press and hold mouse button 3 to access a popup menu that contains shortcuts to functions related to the current procedure. For example, when you press mouse button 3 in a viewport while creating a geometry set, ABAQUS/CAE displays the following menu:

If you use mouse button 3 in a viewport, most of the items in the popup menu duplicate the buttons in the prompt area. The mouse button 3 shortcut is also available for selections from the Model Tree and Results Tree, as described in “Using popup menus in the Model Tree and the Results Tree,” Section 3.5.3.