You can assign section properties to a part by first creating a section and then selecting Assign
Section to assign the section to a part or to a region of a part. Section properties that you assign to a part are assigned automatically to all instances of that part in the assembly. In the Property module, ABAQUS/CAE colors a region aqua to indicate that the region has a section assignment.
You can also use the Section Assignment Manager to view, create, edit, and delete section assignments. For more information, see “Managing section assignments,” Section 12.12.2. You can use the Query toolset to verify that you have assigned the correct section to a selected region. For more information, see “Using the Query toolset to obtain assignment information,” Section 12.14.
When you import an orphan mesh part from an input file, some section properties associated with that orphan mesh may also be imported; in these cases it may be unnecessary to assign section properties to the part. For more information, see “Importing a model from an ABAQUS/Standard or an ABAQUS/Explicit input file,” Section 10.5.1.
To assign a section to a part:
If the part to which you want to assign a section is not visible in the current viewport, click the name of the desired part in the Part list located under the toolbar.
The part that you select appears in the current viewport.
From the main menu bar, select AssignSection.
Tip:
You can also click Create in the Section Assignment Manager or select the 
tool in the Property module toolbox.
Select the regions of the part from the viewport, and click mouse button 2 to indicate you have finished selecting. (For more information, see Chapter 6, “Selecting objects within the viewport”.)
Tip:
You can limit the types of objects that you can select in the viewport by clicking the selection filter tool 
in the prompt area and then clicking the selection filter of your choice in the dialog box that appears. See “Using the selection options,” Section 6.3, for more information.
If you would rather select from a list of existing sets, do the following:
Click Sets on the right side of the prompt area.
ABAQUS/CAE displays the Region Selection dialog box containing a list of available part sets.
Select the part set of interest, and click Continue.
Note: The default selection method is based on the selection method you most recently employed. To revert to the other method, click the button—Select in Viewport or Sets—on the right side of the prompt area.
An Edit Section Assignment dialog box appears. This dialog box contains a list of existing sections that can be assigned to the selected region or part set. For example, if you selected a solid region, any existing solid sections appear in the Edit Section Assignment dialog box. In addition, the dialog box contains a Create button and the section type, material, and region of the displayed section.
In the Edit Section Assignment dialog box, select the section of interest and click OK.
ABAQUS/CAE assigns the selected section to the part and colors the selected region aqua to indicate that the region has a section assignment.
If you assign a homogeneous or a composite section to a shell, you can toggle on Offset and enter a positive or negative distance (as a fraction of the shell thickness) from the midsurface to the reference surface of the shell.
A positive offset will generate nodes and elements closer to the top surface of the shell, and a negative offset will generate them closer to the bottom surface. Offsets greater than 0.5 will cause the nodes to be beyond the surface of the shell.
If you want to assign sections to additional regions, repeat Steps 3 and 4. When you have finished assigning sections, use one of the following methods to exit the section assignment mode:
If you are selecting regions of the part from the viewport, click mouse button 2 or click Done in the prompt area.
If you are selecting preexisting sets from the Region Selection dialog box, click Cancel to close the dialog box, then click mouse button 2 or click Done in the prompt area.
