Visualizing Abaqus output database in ParaView: A universal converter in Python and C++

Abaqus is a commercial software suite for numerical simulation and ParaView is an open-source software application for 3D scientific data visualization. While the Abaqus suite provides Abaqus/Viewer for post-processing, it is not open-source, and custom visualization features can only be implemented using Abaqus official APIs (e.g., Python APIs). ParaView has a robust rendering pipeline, such that complicated post-processing operations can be implemented using filters. Due to ParaView’s openness and plugin architectures, highly tailored data processing and visualization are made possible. However, visualizing Abaqus output database (.odb extension) in ParaView is a nontrivial task. ODB files are proprietary binary files that can only be read by Abaqus. Without reverse engineering, the option is to extract data from ODB files using Abaqus’ official APIs (C++ or Python) and write them to a file format compatible with ParaView. There have been some efforts to achieve this, but none of them are satisfactory in terms of extensibility and generality. Our converter is designed to address this issue by providing a compact, robust, and extensible solution for converting Abaqus ODB files to a format that can be read by ParaView. Our converter stands out due to the following benefits: (1) It can handle a variety of element types, including linear elements, high-order elements, and elements with multiple integration or section points; (2) It extracts data at integration and section points; (3) It includes a separate script that utilizes Python multiprocessing; (4) A C++ version is also provided, which offers a significant increase in speed compared to the Python version.