A connector section defines the connection type and may include connector behavior data. ABAQUS provides two connection types—basic types and assembled types.
Basic types
Basic connection types include translational types and rotational types. Translational types affect translational degrees of freedom at both endpoints of the wires to which the connector section is assigned and may affect rotational degrees of freedom at the first or both endpoints of the wires. Rotational types affect only rotational degrees of freedom at both endpoints of the wires.
Assembled types
Assembled connection types are predefined combinations of basic connection types. For example, a HINGE connection type combines a JOIN connection type (translational) and a REVOLUTE connection type (rotational) to join the position of two points and provide a revolute constraint between their rotational degrees of freedom.
Note: ABAQUS/CAE writes complete connector section data to the input file only when a connector section has a connector section assignment in the model database. If you plan to import a model from an input file and obtain connector sections, you must make sure that all of the connector sections have assignments in the model database.
For an overview of the connection types that are available in ABAQUS/CAE, see “Understanding connector sections and functions,” Section 15.7. For a description of each connection type and the equivalent basic connection types that define the kinematic constraints of assembled type connections, see “Connection-type library,” Section 25.1.5 of the ABAQUS Analysis User's Manual.