A network ODB connector creates a connection to a remote machine and allows you to access a remote output database. For example, you can submit an analysis to a high-performance UNIX system and view the results on a local Windows workstation while the analysis is still running.
You can create a network ODB connector from any platform—Windows, UNIX, or Linux. However, the network ODB server must reside on a UNIX or Linux platform; you cannot access an output database that resides on a remote Windows system. You can access only a remote output database; you cannot access a remote model database.
Select File
Network ODB ConnectorCreate from the main menu bar to create a connection with a directory on a remote host. When you are creating a network ODB connector, you can use ABAQUS/CAE to automatically start the network ODB server and to establish the communication port numbers on the host and remote systems. Alternatively, you can start the network ODB server manually from the command line using the abaqus networkDBConnector execution procedure. If you start the server from the command line, you enter the communication port number returned by the execution procedure when you subsequently create the network ODB connector. For more information, see “Execution procedure for network output database file connector,” Section 3.2.18 of the ABAQUS Analysis User's Manual.
After you create a network ODB connector, you must start it by selecting FileNetwork ODB ConnectorStartConnector name from the main menu bar. The remote system must have ABAQUS installed for ABAQUS/CAE to establish the network connection. For more information, see “Creating a network ODB connector,” Section 9.7.3, and “Managing network ODB connectors,” Section 9.7.5.
After you create and start a network connector, you can use it to navigate the directory structure on a remote host. When you select FileOpen from the main menu bar to open a database from ABAQUS/CAE, a Network connectors entry appears under Directory in the file selection dialog box. The entry appears regardless of whether you are trying to open an output database or a model database; however, you cannot use a network connector when opening a model database. For more information, see “Using file selection dialog boxes,” Section 3.2.10.
The network connector allows you to do the following:
Open a remote output database in read-only mode, and view the contents of the output database using the Visualization module. For more information, see “Opening a model database or an output database,” Section 9.7.2.
The behavior of the Visualization module does not change when the output database is remote; for example, you can view the output database while the analysis is running on a remote machine, and more than one user can view the output database. However, you cannot click Results in the Job Manager to open the remote output database associated with a remote analysis.
Import a part from a remote output database. For more information, see “Importing parts,” Section 10.7.2.
Import a model from a remote output database. For more information, see “Importing a model from an output database,” Section 10.5.2.
Upgrade a remote output database.
After most Visualization module operations and during animations, ABAQUS/CAE monitors the output database for updated results and updates the current viewport accordingly. If you are displaying data from a remote output database, the performance of ABAQUS/CAE may be degraded if the time taken to monitor the database over the network is significant. To increase the performance, you can reduce the frequency with which ABAQUS/CAE monitors the output database for updates or you can disable the monitoring. For more information, see “Controlling results caching,” Section 24.5.10.