Create an interaction in the initial step. For more information, see Creating interactions.
Select an interaction type of XFEM crack growth, and click Continue.
From the Edit Interaction dialog box, select the XFEM crack that you want to activate or deactivate. You can select only cracks that allow crack growth.
Click OK to create the interaction.
Open the Interaction Manager. For more information, see Managing objects in the Interaction module.
Select the XFEM crack growth interaction in the desired step, and click Edit.
From the Edit Interaction dialog box, toggle off (or on) Allow crack growth to deactivate (or activate) the XFEM crack growth in the selected step, and click OK.
The Interaction Manager displays Modified to indicate the status of the XFEM crack growth in that step. Abaqus propagates the state of the XFEM crack growth (activated or deactivated) to subsequent steps.