Abaqus
Abaqus FEA is a software suite for finite element analysis and computer-aided engineering.
Using your own license
Abaqus is available on Compute Canada clusters, but you must provide your own license. In your account, create a file named $HOME/.licenses/abaqus.lic containing this single line:
prepend_path("LM_LICENSE_FILE","port@server")
...replacing port@server with the port number and name of your Abaqus license server.
Your license server must be reachable by our compute nodes, so your firewall will need to be configured appropriately. This usually requires our technical team to get in touch with the technical people managing your license software. Please contact our technical support and we will provide a list of IP addresses used by our clusters and obtain the information we need on the port and IP address of your server.
Cluster Batch Job Submission
Below is an example submission script for a small Abaqus Explicit job running on four cores:
#!/bin/bash
#SBATCH --account=def-account # specify some account
#SBATCH --time=00-06:00 # days-hours:minutes
#SBATCH --mem=2500M # total memory on node
#SBATCH --cpus-per-task=4 # match to cpus below
module load abaqus/6.14.1
unset SLURM_GTIDS
export MPI_IC_ORDER='tcp'
abaqus job=Job-SBS-ALU-EXPLICIT input=SBS-ALUMINUM-EXPLICIT.inp memory="2 gb" scratch=$SCRATCH cpus=4 interactive
To get a list of Abaqus' command line options run the command abaqus -help | less.
Site Specific Usage
Sharcnet License
Sharcnet provides a small but free license consisting of 2cae and 21 execute tokens with usage imposed limits 10 tokens/user and 15 tokens/group. It is available on a first come first serve basis and mainly intended for testing and light usage before deciding to purchase dedicated tokens. The license can be used by any Compute Canada member but only on SHARCNET hardware. Such hardware includes gra-vdi for running abaqus in full graphical mode and graham cluster for submitting compute batch jobs to the queue. Before you can use the license you must submit a ticket requesting access. To do this include a copy/paste of the following License Agreement statement specifying your full name and username in the designated locations:
License Agreement
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Abaqus Sharcnet License Academic Usage Agreement This email is to confirm that i "_____________" with username "___________" will only use “SIMULIA Academic Software” with tokens from the SHARCNET license server for the following purposes: 1) on SHARCNET hardware where the software is already installed 2) in affiliation with a canadian degree-granting academic institution 3) for education, institutional or instruction purposes and not for any commercial or contract related purposes where results are not publishable 4) for experimental, theoretical and/or digital research work, undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundations of phenomena and observable facts, up to the point of proof-of-concept in a laboratory -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
License Server File
[someuser@gra-login1:~/.licenses] cat abaqus.lic
prepend_path("LM_LICENSE_FILE","27050@license3.sharcnet.ca")
Remote Visualization
To connect first install the TigerVNC client on your desktop as described in VNC. Once logged in run abaqus graphically as follows:
- Connect to gra-vdi.computecanada.ca with TigerVNC
module load StdEnvmodule load abaqus/2019-snabaqus cae
Western License
The Western site license may only be used on hardware located at Western's campus such as the Dusky legacy cluster. Graham and gra-vdi are excluded since they are located at Waterloo (use the Sharcnet License for these systems as described above). Contact the Western abaqus license server administrator to make arrangements. You will need to provide your Compute Canada username and likely purchase tokens. Submit a ticket to Compute Canada support to request the contact information of the admin if necessary.