Both technical engineering support (for problems with creating a model or performing an analysis) and systems support (for installation, licensing, and hardware-related problems) for Abaqus are offered through a network of support offices. Regional contact information is accessible from the Locations page at www.3ds.com/simulia. Support is also available from the Support page at www.3ds.com/simulia. When contacting your support office, please specify whether you would like technical support (you have encountered problems performing an Abaqus analysis) or systems support (Abaqus will not install correctly, licensing does not work correctly, or other hardware-related issues have arisen).
We welcome any suggestions for improvements to Abaqus software, the support program, or documentation. We will ensure that any enhancement requests you make are considered for future releases. If you wish to make a suggestion about the service or products provided by SIMULIA, refer to www.3ds.com/simulia. Complaints should be addressed by contacting your support office or by visiting the Quality Assurance page at www.3ds.com/simulia.
SIMULIA technical support engineers can assist in clarifying Abaqus features and checking errors by giving both general information on using Abaqus and information on its application to specific analyses. If you have concerns about an analysis, we suggest that you contact us at an early stage, since it is usually easier to solve problems at the beginning of a project rather than trying to correct an analysis at the end.
Please have the following information ready before calling the technical support hotline, and include it in any written contacts:
The release of Abaqus that are you using.
The release numbers for Abaqus/Standard, Abaqus/Explicit, and Abaqus/CFD are given at the top of the data (.dat) file.
The release numbers for Abaqus/CAE and Abaqus/Viewer can be found by selecting Help
About Abaqus from the main menu bar.
The type of computer on which you are running Abaqus.
The symptoms of any problems, including the exact error messages, if any.
Workarounds or tests that you have already tried.
The support engineer will try to diagnose your problem from the model description and a description of the difficulties you are having. Frequently, the support engineer will need model sketches, which can be e-mailed, faxed, or sent in the mail. Plots of the final results or the results near the point that the analysis terminated may also be needed to understand what may have caused the problem.
If the support engineer cannot diagnose your problem from this information, you may be asked to supply the input data. The data can be attached to a support request in the online system. It can also be sent by means of e-mail, ftp, CD, or DVD.
All support requests are tracked. This tracking enables you (as well as the support engineer) to monitor the progress of a particular problem and to check that we are resolving support issues efficiently. You must register with the system to check on a support issue. If you contact us by means outside the system to discuss an existing support problem and you know the support request number, please mention it so that we can consult the database to see what the latest action has been.
Abaqus systems support engineers can help you resolve issues related to the installation and running of Abaqus, including licensing difficulties, that are not covered by technical support.
You should install Abaqus by carefully following the instructions in the Abaqus Installation and Licensing Guide. If you encounter problems with the installation or licensing, first review the instructions in the Abaqus Installation and Licensing Guide to ensure that they have been followed correctly. If this method does not resolve the problems, search for known installation problems in the Dassault Systèmes Knowledge Base at www.3ds.com/support/knowledge-base. If this method does not address your situation, please create a support request in the online system. Send whatever information is available to define the problem: error messages from an aborted analysis or a detailed explanation of the problems encountered. Whenever possible, please send the output from the abaqus info=support command.