Python scripts let you accomplish tasks in Abaqus that would be time consuming or practically impossible in the GUI (Abaqus/CAE). Using a script you can automate a repetitive task, vary parameters of a simulation as part of an optimization study, extract information from large output databases, and can even create user interfaces that customize the look and feel of Abaqus, hiding parts of the interface from FEA illiterate team members. However the learning curve for Python scripting is steep, and although the Abaqus documentation is comprehensive, it tends to overwhelm beginners. This is where this book fits in. If you've never written a working script for Abaqus (and haven't used the Python programming language either), this book will take you from a beginner to an intermediate level. If you have some previous scripting experience, but are not very confident in your abilities, this book will give you the stable foundation you need. Why write Python scripts? If you plan to learn scripting in Abaqus chances are you already know why it is useful and intend to use it to accomplish some task for your analyses. But for the sake of completeness (and for those of you who are reading because your professor/boss forced you to), a few uses shall be mentioned.

Let’s assume you regularly use a few materials in all your simulations. Every time you start a new simulation in the GUI mode (Abaqus/CAE) you need to open up the materials editor and enter in material properties such as the Density, Young’s Modulus, and Poisson’s Ratio and so on for each of these materials. You could instead put all of these materials in a script. Then all you would need to do is go to File Run Script and your material database would be populated with these materials in a couple of seconds. Basically you would be using the script to perform a repetitive task to save time.