10.6 A logical approach to successful import

The following list describes the steps that you should follow if you experience problems importing a solid part into ABAQUS/CAE:

Defeature the part

Before you export a solid part from a CAD system, you should know what type of part you want to analyze with ABAQUS and what you expect from the analysis. For example, you may want to remove excessive detail that will influence the mesh and dominate the time taken to perform the analysis. For more information, see “Know what you want as an end product,” Section 10.1.4.

Modify the import options in ABAQUS/CAE

If you are importing a part from an IGES file, you can choose the following options:

Trim Curve Preference

Scale

MSBO

You can also specify the levels in the IGES file from which to import. For more information on the effects of setting these options, see “What are the IGES options in ABAQUS/CAE?,” Section 10.4.1.

Try to repair the part

If ABAQUS/CAE requires a precise part to proceed (for example, if you need to partition the part), you can use the Repair toolset in the Part module to edit the part. For more information, see “An overview of repair techniques,” Section 47.2.

Diagnose and locate problems

If you are not sure why a part is still unusable by ABAQUS/CAE, you can try the following:

Look at the IGES Entity Filter list in the IGES Options dialog box for unsupported entities.

Grey or lighter unconnected lines on a face are silhouette lines indicating undulations in the surface that ABAQUS/CAE introduced while attempting to make the surface more precise. You should manually delete the face or import the part again without using the Convert to precise representation automated repair option.

Try to mesh the part. Faces that cannot be meshed by ABAQUS/CAE are an indication of poor geometry.

Try to reimport the part

If the repair tools fail to produce a valid part, the file describing the part may be invalid or contain illegal statements. You should try to import the part back into the CAD system that created it. If the part cannot be imported, you should check the export settings and regenerate the file. Entities in the file that are not related to the part definition will cause the import to fail; for example, a border around the part or a title block. Ideally, you should not try to import a part into ABAQUS/CAE until you know that it can be imported back into the CAD system that generated the part.