Changing the period of a step

The meaning of a step's period value depends on whether the step is a Riks analysis step or a time-based step. For Riks analysis steps, the period specifies the total arc length for the step. For time-based steps, the period specifies the step's total duration, so changing this value affects how long this step is displayed and changes the starting times for all subsequent steps. Changing the time period of a single step also changes the duration of the entire animation or frame-by-frame display, affects the auto-computed start and end time of time-based animations, and affects the way the animation of this model synchronizes with other models. You might want to adjust the time period if you want to synchronize events in different models that occur at different times in the common time line.

Related Topics
Selecting the results step and frame
Reading X–Y data from output database field output
Animating plots

Context:

Changes to the period values last for the duration of your session. Abaqus/CAE does not save these changes to the output database.

You cannot edit the period value of a Riks analysis or time-based step if the value equals 0. In addition, modal and frequency extraction steps do not have period values; Abaqus/CAE displays an uneditable dash (-) in the Period column for steps of these types.

Tip: If you want to revert the period values to the output database's settings, click mouse button 3 in the lower portion of the window and select Reset Periods.

  1. Locate the Active Steps/Frames dialog box.

    From the main menu bar, select ResultActive Steps/Frames. The Active Steps/Frames dialog box appears.

    The lower portion of the dialog box shows the steps and, for expanded steps, the frames in the output database. The first time you examine an output database’s steps and frames during a session, all of the steps and frames are active.

  2. From the lower portion of this dialog box, click the value in Period column for a step, then enter a new value in the field. Repeat this change for every step period that you want to customize.

  3. Click Apply.

    Abaqus/CAE updates all viewports that display this output database with the revised period and time values.