11.9.3 Wire features

A wire is depicted as a line in ABAQUS/CAE and is used to idealize a solid in which both its thickness and depth are considered small compared to its length. To create a wire feature, select ShapeWire from the main menu bar or select one of the wire tools in the Part module toolbox. You create a wire feature in the Part module using the wire tools to do one of the following:

You can use the wire tools to add a wire feature to any deformable or discrete rigid part. You cannot add a wire feature to an analytical rigid part; you can only modify the original sketch that defined that part.

You use the Property module to create a section that prescribes the desired cross-sectional geometry and to assign that section to the wire feature. (For more information, see Defining sections, Section 12.2.3, and Which properties can I assign to a part?, Section 12.3.) You can model a wire feature using any of the beam, truss, or axisymmetric shell elements available in ABAQUS/Standard or ABAQUS/Explicit.

Note:  Although you can create a mesh of beam elements, the current version of ABAQUS/CAE allows you to assign only the following sections to a wire:

  • Beam section

  • Truss section


For information on related topics, click any of the following items: