You can copy entities (vertices, edges, faces, or cells) that are highlighted in the viewport into a temporary storage area called a selection group. ABAQUS/CAE saves the selection group for the duration of a session. Rather than manually reselecting the same entities during a subsequent selection procedure, you can paste the selection group into your selection. For example, you can copy all of the small faces highlighted by the Geometry Diagnostics query tool into a selection group. You can then paste the same selection group into your selection when you are using the Repair toolset to repair small faces.

When you paste a group into your selection, you can choose from selection groups and from display groups. Selection groups are designed to be a temporary convenience for the user, and they do not appear with display groups in the Display Groups toolset. You can create any number of display groups. In contrast, ABAQUS/CAE saves a maximum of five selection groups. ABAQUS/CAE overwrites the existing selection groups if you create more than five selection groups.

After you have selected the desired entities, you create a selection group by clicking mouse button 3 in the viewport and selecting Copy from the menu that appears. ABAQUS/CAE copies all of the highlighted entities into a selection group. You paste a selection group to your current selection by clicking mouse button 3 in the viewport and selecting Paste from the menu that appears. ABAQUS/CAE displays the Paste to Selection dialog box, and you can select one or more of the existing selection groups to paste to your current selection. When you paste a group, ABAQUS/CAE appends the entities in the group to any other entities that you have already selected.