Whenever you modify a feature of a part, ABAQUS/CAE has to regenerate the part. Similarly, to incorporate the modified feature into any instances of the part, ABAQUS/CAE also regenerates features in the assembly when you enter an assembly-related module. However, to save time, ABAQUS/CAE determines the minimum number of features that need to be regenerated and regenerates only the features that were affected by the modification. If your parts and your assembly are relatively simple, you will not notice ABAQUS/CAE performing this regeneration. However, in a more complex model the regeneration can result in a decrease in performance. Modifications to features that trigger regeneration include using the Feature Manipulation toolset to edit, suppress, resume, and delete a feature.

The Model Tree indicates that a feature needs to be regenerated using a yellow check mark, as described in “Using the Model Tree to manage features,” Section 42.2. You can always force ABAQUS/CAE to regenerate a part of the assembly by selecting FeatureRegenerate from the main menu bar or by clicking mouse button 3 on the Features container in the Model Tree.