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 Abaqus 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018. This feature is available in all of the Altair Simulation products, including HyperView, HyperGraph, HvTrans and Abaqus_fbd utility.

Multiple ODB Version Usage

You can read ODB results files version 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 without needing to upgrade them. If you try to load a file older than version 2018, an error message is displayed.
  1. To load a file older than 2018, 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 2018 is the most used version, set the selector to version 2018.

Note:
  • If the variable is not set, the ODB files will be upgraded to the latest version, which is currently Abaqus 2022.
  • 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 (2022) 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. -6.14). If no version is specified, the upgrade utility will upgrade to the latest version (2022) 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 dialog 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 -6.14 c:\input\demo_610result.odb c:\output\demo_614.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.