When you create an interaction, you must specify the name of the interaction, the step in which to activate the interaction, the type of interaction, and the region of the assembly to which you want to apply the interaction. The region selection does not apply to general contact interactions. The available types of interactions depend on the procedure selected for the step. For example, you can define heat flux on a surface only during a heat transfer, coupled temperature-displacement, or coupled thermal-electrical step. Similarly, you can define interactions with a user-defined actuator/sensor only during the initial step.
To create interactions:
From the main menu bar, select Interaction
Create.
A Create Interaction dialog box appears with a default name displayed in the Name text field.
Tip:
You can also create an interaction using the 
tool in the Interaction module toolbox.
Type a name for the interaction. For more information about naming objects, see “Using basic dialog box components,” Section 3.2.1.
Select the step in which to activate the interaction. Click the arrow next to the Step text field, and select from the list that appears.
The Types for Selected Steps list changes to a list of all of the available interaction types.
From the Types for Selected Steps list, select the interaction type, and click Continue.
If you are creating an interaction other than general contact, select the region to which you want to apply the interaction using one of the following methods:
Select a region in the viewport. You can use the angle method to select a group of faces or edges from a native geometric part instance or a group of element faces from an orphan mesh part instance. For more information, see “Using the angle method to select multiple objects,” Section 6.2.3. When you have finished selecting, click mouse button 2.
Tip:
You can limit the types of objects that you can select in the viewport by clicking the selection options 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 the model contains a combination of orphan mesh instances and native part instances, click one of the following from the prompt area:
Click Geometry to apply the interaction to a native part instance or to a reference point.
Click Mesh to apply the interaction to an orphan mesh instance.
To select from a list of existing sets or surfaces, do the following:
Click Sets or Surfaces on the right side of the prompt area. (The name of the button depends on the type of object you are creating. For example, if you are creating a surface-to-surface contact interaction, a Surfaces button appears.)
ABAQUS/CAE displays the Region Selection dialog box containing a list of available sets or surfaces.
Select the set or surface 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 Select in Viewport or Sets or Surfaces on the right side of the prompt area.
The interaction editor appears. The region to which you are applying the interaction is highlighted in the viewport.
If you are creating a general contact interaction, the interaction editor appears.
Enter all of the data necessary to define the interaction, and click OK. For detailed information on a particular feature of the editor, select HelpOn Context from the main menu bar and then click the feature of interest or see “Using the interaction editors,” Section 15.12.
Symbols appear in the viewport that represent the interaction that you just created. For more information, see “Understanding symbols that represent interactions, constraints, and connectors,” Section 15.9.
