Abaqus

Abaqus provides solutions for linear, non-linear, explicit, and multi-body dynamics problems to deliver a unified finite element analysis environment.

External Links:
Abaqus website


Loading Abaqus

There are various versions of Abaqus installed on Hazel. To see the various versions available, type module avail. The current version is 2024.HF4. To set the Abaqus environment, load the default module

module load abaqus 

Running Abaqus

Do not use Abaqus on a login node.

Abaqus should be run from the /share directory. The standard output, standard error, and by default all generated data from the job will be placed in the directory where the bsub command was issued. Running Abaqus from the /home directory can quickly fill a users' quota.

Batch Abaqus

Here is an example batch script. For more information on submitting batch scripts, see the documentation on running jobs.

To run Abaqus in batch mode using an Abaqus input file called Deform.inp, create a text file called submit.sh containing:

#!/bin/bash
#BSUB -W 20
#BSUB -n 2
#BSUB -R "span[hosts=1]"
#BSUB -o out.%J
#BSUB -e err.%J
module load abaqus 
abq2024hf4 job=Deform cpus=2 interactive

The job can be submitted as

bsub < submit.sh 

The argument interactive must be used or LSF will exit and the job will continue to run. LSF will not know the job is still running.

The script submit.sh requests 2 cores for 20 minutes. The span argument requires the 2 cores to be on the same node. Check the documentation on running jobs to customize the batch script.

Interactive Abaqus

VCL

If it is necessary to run Abaqus in GUI mode, the HPC-VCL should be used. Versions of Abaqus that are older than the current default may not work on the current VCL image. To run on the VCL, reserve an HPC-VCL node, making sure to select the HPC RHEL 9 image. At the Reservations page of VCL webpage, after your reservation changes from “Pending” and you have a “Connect!” button, do one of the following depending on what operating system your local computer is running:

Mac

• On the Reservations page of VCL webpage in the top horizontal menu, go to Manage > User Preferences > RDP Preferences
  • Set “Resolution” to 640x480
  • Set “Color Depth” to 16
  • Make sure to click “Submit Changes” button, then “Submit” button, to save your changes
• Follow these directions for creating a custom PC connection with altered Display settings in Microsoft Remote Desktop.app (scroll to top of this page to learn how to get Microsoft Remote Desktop.app). Follow directions up to, and including, the step “open a terminal”. Once you make your custom PC connection once, you can just edit the IP address of that custom PC connection in the future if you want to use it with other HPC-VCL node reservations.
• After opening a terminal on the RDP Linux desktop (you can right-click mouse, then click “Open Terminal Here”) within the Microsoft Remote Desktop application, type in the terminal: cd /share/$GROUP/$USER
• Run the commands (it may take a while for GUI to appear after issuing the last command):

  module load abaqus
  abaqus cae -mesa
  

Windows

• In the Microsoft search bar (in taskbar section of Windows desktop), type “Display settings”, and click on the first choice. Make note of the “Display resolution” value.
• On the Reservations page of VCL webpage in the top horizontal menu, go to Manage > User Preferences > RDP Preferences
  • Set “Resolution” to to the value found in step 1 above (1280x1024 would be a reasonable value to start at)
  • Set “Color Depth” to 16
  • Make sure to click “Submit Changes” button, then “Submit” button, to save your changes
• On the Reservations page of VCL webpage, click the “Connect!” button.
• In the resulting pop-up window, click “Get RDP File” button.
• After the RDP file downloads to your computer, launch the RDP file using the native “Remote Desktop Connection” application that comes pre-installed with Windows. Note, this application is similar to the “Microsoft Remote Desktop” application, but is in fact, different.
• Enter credentials, and once you have a Linux desktop, right-click with mouse, then click “Open Terminal Here”
• In the terminal, type: cd /share/$GROUP/$USER
• Run the commands (it may take a while for GUI to appear after issuing the last command):

  module load abaqus
  abaqus cae -mesa
  

Last modified: November 03 2025 23:36:03.