Wire features

A wire is depicted as a line in Abaqus/CAE and is used to idealize a solid in which both its thickness and depth are considered small compared to its length. To create a wire feature, select ShapeWire from the main menu bar or select one of the wire tools in the Part module toolbox. You create a wire feature in the Part module using the wire tools to do one of the following:

Related Topics
Adding a wire feature
What is feature-based modeling?

  • Sketch a wire on a selected planar face or datum plane to create a sketched wire feature, as shown in Figure 1. Select ShapeWireSketch from the main menu bar to create this type of feature.

    Figure 1. A sketched wire feature.

    When you sketch on a planar face (for example, the side of a cube), the wire feature is created only where it extends beyond the face.

  • Connect two or more points with straight lines, as shown in Figure 2, or with a spline curve, as shown in Figure 3. Select ShapeWirePoint to Point from the main menu bar to create this type of feature. Select Polyline or Spline for the Geometry Type to create straight lines or a spline curve, respectively. You can choose to imprint the wire on the existing part by creating edges, merge the wire with the existing part, or create the wire separate from the existing part. The rectangular solid feature in Figure 3 is shown for reference. The image on the left shows the full length of the spline wire using the Imprint wire or Separate wire options, while the image on the right shows a spline wire connecting the same set of points using the Merge wire option. You can create geometry sets that include the wires and vertices defined in the wire feature.

    Figure 2. A wire feature connecting three points.

    Figure 3. A wire feature connecting several points of a solid feature.

You can use the wire tools to add a wire feature to any deformable or discrete rigid part. You cannot add a wire feature to an analytical rigid part; you can only modify the original sketch that defined that part.

You use the Property module to create a section that prescribes the desired cross-sectional geometry and to assign that section to the wire feature. (For more information, see Defining sections, and Which properties can I assign to a part?.) You can model a wire feature using any of the beam, truss, or axisymmetric shell elements available in Abaqus/Standard or Abaqus/Explicit.

Note:

Although you can create a mesh of beam elements, the current release of Abaqus/CAE allows you to assign only the following sections to a wire:

  • Beam section

  • Truss section