Multiple ODB Version Support

The ODB Reader supports multiple versions of Abaqus ODB results files. You can read supported Abaqus (multiple) versions without needing to upgrade them. The current release supports Abaqus ODB versions Abaqus2016, 6.14, 6.13, 6.12, 6.11, and 6.10 EF. This feature is available on all the applications in the HyperWorks Suite, including HyperView, HyperGraph, HvTrans and Abaqus_fbd utility.

Multiple ODB Version Usage

You can read ODB results files version 6.10, 6.10-EF, 6.11 and 6.12 without needing to upgrade them. If you try to load a file older than version 6.8, an error message is displayed.

1.	To load a file older than 6.10, click Reader Options in the Load model panel.

2.	Select the Reader as ABAQUS ODB Result Reader.

3.	Set the option Auto-upgrade older ODB files to true. This creates a temporary ODB file in the default Abaqus version.

You can change the default Abaqus version to another supported version using the Reader options dialog located on the Load model panel. For example, if Abaqus 6.10 is the most used version, set the selector to version 6.10.

Notes:

•	If the variable is not set, the ODB files will be upgraded to the latest version, which is currently Abaqus 6.12.

•

The Abaqus interface supports only Abaqus 6.8 on HP-UX for 10.0. However, for newer .odb file versions, you can use HvTrans on Windows/Linux-x86/x64 platforms to translate ODB to H3D. Then you can do interactive post-processing on any platforms supported by HyperWorks. It's important to note that only required results should be translated to avoid large H3D files.

Using the Upgrade Utility

The ODB Upgrade Utility is version independent. There are two ways to access the utility to upgrade ODB files:

1.	From the Start Menu, select Program - <HyperWorks Installation> - Tools - AbaqusODB UpGrade

2.	Command line

When using the upgrade functionality via the Start Menu or HyperView drop down menu, the ODB file will be upgraded to the latest version (6.12) or to the version set by the environment variable mentioned above.

For the command line option the syntax is as follows:

abaqus_odb_upgrade <-version> <input> <output>

-version

the version needs to be specified here (e.g. -6.10). If no version is specified, the upgrade utility will upgrade to the latest version (6.12) or the version set by the environment variable.

input

Path and file name of the ODB file to be upgraded has to be specified here. If the file is located in the current working directory, pathname can be omitted

For Windows, if no input file is specified a dialogue opens where you can select the file.

output

Path and file name of the resultant file needs to be specified here.

If no path is specified, the upgraded file will be put in the current working directory

If no file name is specified, abaqus_odb_upgrade will put an extension specifying the version at the end of the file name.

Example:

abaqus_odb_upgrade -6.10 c:\input\demo_65result.odb c:\output\demo_68.odb

Location of the upgrade utility:

Windows:	<altair>\io\result_readers\bin\win32\
Linux:	<altair>\altair\scripts\

Note:

For better efficiency and startup times for all tools using Abaqus .odb readers, an attempt is made to determine the file version so that only the required reader is started. Also, if you do not try to read an Abaqus file in a session, none of the Abaqus readers are started, which does not consume memory. Ideally, if the .odb file version is successfully determined, only the related reader runs after import.