Monitoring your optimization process

You can monitor the progress of your optimization process while it is running by selecting OptimizationMonitoroptimization process name. You can also monitor the optimization process by selecting the optimization process name in the Optimization Process Manager and clicking Monitor. In addition, you can monitor the Abaqus jobs that completed during previous design cycles by clicking mouse button 3 on the job in the Model Tree and selecting Monitor.

Related Topics
Understanding optimization processes
Creating, editing, and manipulating optimization processes

The optimization process monitor displays a table showing the optimization values after each design cycle, as described in Understanding the files generated by an optimization process. By default, the table includes only the objective function and any constraints in the optimization process. Abaqus/CAE adds a row to the table when a design cycle completes. You can click mouse button 3 on a cell in the table and do the following:

  • Select Hide to remove the selected column from the table.

  • Select Edit visible columns and choose the variables to display. Table 1 describes the variables that can be displayed.

    Table 1. Variable categories
    Category Description
    Objective Function The value of the objective function—a single design response or a weighted combination of design responses and reference values.
    Objective Function-Design Response The value of a design response that is used by the objective function.
    Objective Function Term The weighted value of a design response and its reference value.
    Constraint The value of a constraint.
    Variable The value of each design response.

    See Objectives and constraints, for more information about the formulation of the objective function from a combination of weighted design responses and reference values.

To view an X–Y plot showing the change in the value of the design responses after each design cycle, click the Plot button in the upper left corner of the optimization process monitor. The X–Y plot appears in a new viewport and includes every design response listed in the table. You can use the X–Y plot options to customize the appearance of the plot, as described in X–Y plotting.”

The data that are displayed in the table or in the X–Y plot are read from the files optimization_status_all.csv and optimization_report.csv. The Optimization module must be able to write to these files while the optimization process is executing. For example, you cannot open the files in an application such as Microsoft Excel while the optimization process is executing.

The optimization process monitor also displays the following information:

  • The Log tabbed page displays the start and end times for the optimization process along with a log of the progress of the process.

  • The Errors and Warnings tabbed pages display the errors or the warnings associated with the optimization process. Abaqus/CAE indicates the presence of errors or warnings by prepending an exclamation point before the Errors and Warnings tab.

    The number of error and warning messages that appear in the job monitor is limited by the environment parameters cae_error_limit and cae_warning_limit, respectively (see Job customization parameters, for details). If the number of errors or warnings exceeds the optimization process limit, consult the data, message, or status file for a complete list of messages.

  • The Output File tabbed page displays a detailed record of each output data entry as it is written to the output file, including status, warning, and error messages. The output file is called atom.out, and it is stored in the optimization process directory (the directory with the same name as the optimization process).

To monitor the Abaqus analysis job associated with the optimization process, click the Monitor button in the upper right corner of the optimization process monitor. (If your optimization process includes multiple models, the Optimization module creates an analysis job for each model and you must first select the desired job to monitor.) Abaqus/CAE displays the job monitor and continues to update the job monitor for each iteration of the optimization. If desired, you can terminate the Abaqus analysis job and, hence, the optimization process, from the job monitor. For more information, see Continuing an optimization process that terminated, and Monitoring the progress of an analysis job.

An optimization process outputs a large amount of information to the optimization process monitor, especially to the Output File tabbed page. To help you locate a particular text string, you can use the Search Text fields in the lower half of the optimization process monitor. Select the desired file tab, enter a search string in the Text to find field, and click Next or Previous to step through the output from one hit to the next. Toggle on Match case to perform a case-sensitive search.

The information presented in the optimization process monitor is updated continually as the optimization progresses. If the optimization fails, the Errors tabbed page appears in front of the other tabbed pages automatically to help you determine the cause of the failure. In addition, an exclamation point appears on the tab if any error or warning messages are output.

If you start monitoring an optimization process and then either exit Abaqus/CAE, close the current model database, or open a new model database, the optimization process will continue; but, you will no longer be able to monitor the optimization process from Abaqus/CAE.