Abaqus is a software suite for finite element analysis and computer aided engineering.

Table of Contents

1. How to access the software
2. Example batch scripts
3. Best practices for Abaqus jobs
4. Submitting Abaqus jobs with fortran user subroutines
5. General information about Abaqus

How to access the software

Load the module:

module load ABAQUS

This will load the default version which is usually the latest available version. Other available Abaqus versions can be listed with module avail ABAQUS.
 

Example batch scripts

You may find our latest example batch scripts in our HPC examples.

Best practices for Abaqus jobs

• Don't name your input file $JOBNAME.inp. It will be deleted by the batch script and your job won't start.
• Use separate directories for each job.
• Use the checkpoint functionality of ABAQUS to save the current state and restart from there. This is especially useful for long running jobs that may run into the maximum time limit. The following is taken as-is from Sheffield HPC Documentation:

  Add the following to the input file (refer to official Abaqus documentation for detail):

  *RESTART, WRITE, OVERLAY, FREQUENCY=10

  OVERLAY saves only one state, i.e. overwrites the restart file every time new restart information is written

  FREQUENCY=N writes restart information every N timesteps

  And, to restart the job, create a new input file newJobName with only a single line:

  *RESTART, READ

  Then run Abaqus specifying both the new and old job names:

  abaqus jobname=newJobName oldjob=oldJobName

• Use job dependencies or job arrays, such that only one or at least a few jobs run concurrently. They might "steal" licenses from each other.

Submitting Abaqus jobs with Fortran user subroutines

Pre-compile your subroutine as a shared library with the following command:

abaqus make -library yoursubfile.f

Abaqus on Claix is configured to automatically add the current working directory to the library directories in which Abaqus searches for subroutines so it is important that you place your library there.

General information about Abaqus

Take a look at this PDF document for more information about the license model of Abaqus.

But in short, the following table shows the token usage for a number of cores for an Abaqus job.

or as a picture:

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I am not able to see my model in Abaqus/CAE, I only get a "blue" screen.

Open abaqus cae with MESA support ( thanks to Mrs. Toups for the tip ). Use abaqus cae -mesa.

I am getting an error: Abaqus Error: The following file(s) could not be located: ....inp

Don't name your input file $JOBNAME.inp, it got deleted! Also make sure that you did use an existing .inp filename and the right path.

I am getting an error: "..." license request queued for the License Server. Total time in queue: ... seconds.

Too many licenses have been checked out. The Slurm scheduler does not check if free Abaqus licenses are available before a job is started. Unfortunately, if no license is available, Abaqus does not directly abort but waits until a license becomes available. From Slurm's point of view however, the job is running and will therefore be accounted as usual.

So only let one or at least a few jobs run at one time. This could be done with job dependencies or with array jobs.

My multi-node job with ABAQUS <= 2020 fails to start up.

This is a known issue. Unfortunately we do not have a fix for this. Please change your batch script to limit your simulation to one node.