Default display properties

The previous examples show how you can use commands to set the default field variable and deformed field variable. Abaqus/CAE uses the default field variable setting to determine the variable to display in a contour plot; for example, stress. Similarly, the default deformed field variable determines the variable that distinguishes a deformed plot from an undeformed plot. Typically, you will use displacement for the default deformed field variable; you cannot specify an invariant or a component. The default variable settings apply for each frame in the step. For example, the following statements use the deformation 'U' as the default setting for both field variable and deformed field variable settings during a particular step:

field=odb.steps['impact'].frames[1].fieldOutputs['U']
odb.steps['impact'].setDefaultField(field)
odb.steps['impact'].setDefaultDeformedField(field)

You can set a different default field variable and deformed field variable for different steps. You will need to use a loop to set the defaults for each step. For example,

for step in odb.steps.values():
  step.setDefaultField(field)