Abaqus-Plugin "Connection Builder"

This Plug-In is intended to reduce the time needed to build connection that consist of the combination of Coupling+Connector+Coupling. This is quite common for virtual bolt and pins, but it can be used for anything of that kind.

The user selects the two faces regions (can be one or multiple faces) and the Plug-In does the rest. It will calculate the geometric center of both regions, place the reference points there, create the two couplings (Distributed or Kinematic) and the connector. The connector orientation is automatically aligned between the two reference points. An existing connector section can be used or a new one is created automatically. Properly named surfaces and sets can also be created for the face regions and the reference points. Doing all that manually would take a lot of clicking and time.

The Plug-In is only for creating these connections. Editing or deleting has to be done with the regular options of Abaqus/CAE.
 

The video shows two basic examples. The Plug-In is attached.

 

 

Additional remarks:
This Plug-In is not an official Dassault Systemes/Simulia product. I’ve created it on my own and initially only for me. The UI is built with the RSG Plug-in. This brings some limitations regarding catching user errors and displaying messages.

You can find more Plug-Ins for Abaqus/CAE in the wiki of this community (Link) and in the DS Knowledge Base (Link1, Link2).

Edit: You can find an updated version that also works with Python 3 in Abaqus 2024 in my Github account (Link).

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