Hi all, 

This is a bit of a strange question but perhaps someone will have some knowledge or ideas to offer. I am looking to solve a scalar equation implicitly for a given increment in Abaqus Explicit. This would be very similar to utilizing a VUMAT subroutine to explicitly solve a displacement problem, but updating the stress implicitly within the algorithm by using the radial return or similar methods. The difference, in my case however, is that the solution I intend to solve implicitly depends on the Laplacian of the scalar variable, and in a VUMAT I do not believe there is any way to access the shape functions/compute the gradient or Laplacian of a user variable. In general, I am trying to avoid using a VUEL, and simply asking if anyone knows of a way to accomplish my goal without doing so.