Default Predefined Groups

The system automatically creates a node group named ALL_NODES and an element group named ALL_ELEMENTS. All nodes and elements respectively that have been loaded with the first file in the FEM_INPUT command are contained in these groups. However, nodes (or elements) loaded from all other files are not contained in the ALL_NODES (ALL_ELEMENTS) group.

If a topology optimization is performed, the element group NON_DESIGN is also generated. This group contains all elements that have not been defined as design elements. The NON_DESIGN group must be visualized together with the HARD element group to be able to view the entire structure of the optimized design in the post-processing system. The groups defined in the FE input model are also loaded by Tosca Structure and therefore can be referenced in the same way as the groups defined in the parameter file. The names of the groups imported from the input model remain unchanged, with the following exceptions:

  • if a node group (NSET) and an element group (ELSET) have the same names in an Abaqus input model, they get the suffices _NODE and _ELEM respectively. See Node and Element Groups for details.
  • if the Abaqus input file contains more than one instance of the same part, the group names are modified as described in Files and Formats.