Requesting Output to the Output Database

Three types of information are stored in the output database in Abaqus/Standard and Abaqus/Explicit: “field” output, “history” output, and diagnostic information.

This page discusses:

See Also
About Output
In Other Guides
*OUTPUT
Understanding output requests

ProductsAbaqus/StandardAbaqus/ExplicitAbaqus/CAE

Field output and history output are controlled by output database requests as described in this section. A subset of the diagnostic information that is written to the message file for Abaqus/Standard analyses and to the status and message files for Abaqus/Explicit analyses is included in the output database.

  • Field output is intended for infrequent requests for a large portion of the model and can be used to generate contour plots, animations, symbol plots, X–Y plots, and displaced shape plots in Abaqus/CAE. Only complete sets of basic variables (for example, all the stress or strain components) can be requested as field output.

  • History output is intended for relatively frequent output requests for small portions of the model and is displayed in X–Y data plots in Abaqus/CAE. Individual variables (such as a particular stress component) can be requested.

  • Diagnostic information in Abaqus/Standard and Abaqus/Explicit is intended to provide analysis warning and/or error information as well as convergence information for use in Abaqus/CAE.

Output database requests can be repeated as often as necessary within a step to produce both field and history output at multiple frequencies.

Requesting Field Output

Contact surface output, element output, nodal output, and radiation output are available as field output in Abaqus/Standard and Abaqus/Explicit.

Input File Usage

Use the first option in conjunction with one or more of the subsequent options to request field output to the output database:

OUTPUT, FIELD
CONTACT OUTPUT
ELEMENT OUTPUT
NODE OUTPUT
RADIATION OUTPUT

These options are discussed in detail below.

Abaqus/CAE Usage

Step module: field output request editor

Requesting History Output

Contact surface output, element output, energy output, integrated output, time incrementation output, modal output, nodal output, and radiation output are available as history output in Abaqus/Standard and Abaqus/Explicit.

Requesting large amounts of history output (more than 1000 output requests) may cause performance to degrade in Abaqus/Standard and will cause performance to degrade in Abaqus/Explicit. For vector- or tensor-valued output variables each component is considered to be a single request. In the case of element variables history output will be generated at each integration point. For example, requesting history output of the tensor variable S (stress) for a C3D10M element will generate 24 history output requests: (6 components) × (4 integration points). When requesting history output of vector- and tensor-valued variables, it is recommended that individual components be selected where available.

Input File Usage

Use the first option in conjunction with one or more of the subsequent options to request history output to the output database:

OUTPUT, HISTORY
CONTACT OUTPUT
ELEMENT OUTPUT
ENERGY OUTPUT
INTEGRATED OUTPUT
INCREMENTATION OUTPUT
MODAL OUTPUT
NODE OUTPUT
RADIATION OUTPUT

These options are discussed in detail below.

Abaqus/CAE Usage

Step module: history output request editor

Requesting Diagnostic Information

By default, a subset of the diagnostic information that is written to the message file for Abaqus/Standard analyses and to the status and message files for Abaqus/Explicit analyses is also written to the output database. You can use the Visualization module of Abaqus/CAE to view this diagnostic information interactively, highlighting problematic areas on a view of the model and using them to resolve errors and warnings in the analysis. For more information, see The Message File in Abaqus/Standard and Abaqus/Explicit, and Viewing diagnostic output.

Input File Usage

Use the following option to write diagnostic information to the output database:

OUTPUT, DIAGNOSTICS=YES

Use the following option to exclude diagnostic information:

OUTPUT, DIAGNOSTICS=NO

Abaqus/CAE Usage

You cannot exclude diagnostic information from the output database from within Abaqus/CAE. Use the following option to view the saved diagnostic information:

Visualization module: ToolsJob Diagnostics