Configuring System Paths to Link User Subroutines in Abaqus (on a Windows 7 system) To enable Abaqus to compile and link to user‐created subroutines, it must be made aware of the locations of both the Intel Fortran compiler as well as the MS Visual Studio software on the host Windows system. The following set of steps satisfies this requirement. Note that this set of instructions was prepared for Abaqus 6.12 used in conjunction with MS Visual Studio 2008 and Intel Visual Fortran Compiler 11.1. These instructions can be used for Abaqus 6.13 (with MS Visual Studio 2010 & Intel Fortran Composer XE 2011) but the paths to those products will be slightly different, and these are shown in steps 2 and 4 in grey font. Users are asked to be mindful of the paths appropriate to their version of Abaqus, MS Visual Studio, and Intel compiler when following this procedure. Record Values of Existing Path Variables 1. Because we will be making changes to certain system variables that contain lists of paths, as a precaution we need to record the existing values of those variable before initiating changes. Running the following script will create a text file “old_paths.txt” on your Desktop with your existing values at this point in the procedure: Q:\Information Technology Services\Research Computing\Applications\Abaqus\record_old_paths.bat
Retain this file indefinitely for a possible rollback to the impending changes, if that ever becomes necessary. [ Note that if the values recorded for these variables in the old_paths.txt file are empty or “ECHO is off”, it means that those variables do not currently exist; that is OK. ] Configure ABAQUS to find Intel Fortran 2. Determine the full path name for the file ifortvars.bat, which will be similar to one of the following (depending on the version of the installed compiler): C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Compiler\11.1\072\bin\ifortvars.bat
C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\ComposerXE-2011\bin\ifortvars.bat
(for Intel compiler used with Abaqus 6.12)
(for Intel compiler used with Abaqus 6.13)
3. Click on the Start Menu, click on All Programs, find Abaqus 6.12 and right‐click on the Abaqus Command menu item. Click on Properties. In the Abaqus Command Properties window that opens up, under the Shortcut tab, the Target: text field should contain: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\cmd.exe /k
After the /k add a blank space, then the full path to ifortvars.bat between double quotes, followed by intel64 as shown below: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\cmd.exe /k “C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Compiler\11.1\072\bin\ifortvars.bat” intel64
NOTE: Do not cut and paste the value above into the Target: field, but type in the value instead. Also, use the path for ifortvars.bat appropriate to the version of your Intel compiler (see step 2). When clicking the Apply button to save this new value, the system will complain with a message such as “You will need to provide administrator permission to complete this operation.” If your account user is an admin on the system, you should simply be able to proceed by clicking the Continue button. Finally, click the OK button to close the Abaqus Command Properties window. Set Environment Variables for Intel Fortran and MS Visual Studio 4. Determine the full path name to the file vcvarsall.bat, which should be similar to: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\vcvarsall.bat
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\vcvarsall.bat
(for version of Visual Studio used with Abaqus 6.12)
(for version of Visual Studio used with Abaqus 6.13)
We already have the full path name to the file ifortvars.bat from an earlier step (see step 2). 5. Click on the Start Manu, then enter cmd into the search field. Click on the program cmd.exe from the search results. In the resulting terminal window, run the following two .bat files (one at a time) by typing (not cutting and pasting) their full path names at the prompt and hitting enter (don’t forget the double quotes – and use the paths appropriate to your version of Abaqus): “C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Compiler\11.1\072\bin\ifortvars.bat” intel64
“C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\vcvarsall.bat”
The output in your cmd terminal window should look similar to the following: 6. Click on the Start Menu, click on All Programs, find Abaqus 6.12 and click on the Abaqus Command menu item to launch it. 7. Run the following script and it will create a file on your Desktop called “current_paths.txt”: Q:\Information Technology Services\Research Computing\Applications\Abaqus\show_current_paths.bat
Update the Environment Variables 8. Create a copy of the file “current_paths.txt” on your Desktop (call it edited_paths.txt). Open this new copy, and separate out the individual paths listed in the values of each of the three variables. Do this by inserting a newline (carriage return) after every semicolon in the long string. The result should be a list of paths, one per line, with each line beginning with “C:”. 9. Delete any duplicate paths from this list, then re‐join all remaining paths once again into a long continuous string. Do this for each of the three lists (for Path, LIB, and INCLUDE). Save this file. [ Removing duplicates can be important as there is a limit to the length of variable values. If values exceed the limit, they will be truncated. ] 10. Click on the Start Menu and open the Control Panel. Click on System and Security and then on the System menu item. Then click on Advanced system settings (in the left‐hand navigation menu). Next, under the Advanced tab, click on the Environment Variables button. 11. In the Environment Variables window, under the heading System variables, progressively select each of the environment variables Path, LIB and INCLUDE. (Where the variable doesn’t exist, create it using the New button.) 12. For each variable, as it is highlighted in the list, click the Edit button and replace its value (cut and paste) with the appropriate value from the edited_paths.txt file. Click OK to exit the Edit System Variable window, and then OK to exit from the Environment Variables window. 13. Log off and log back in again on your windows system. Verify Abaqus User Subroutine Linkage 14. Open an ABAQUS command window and type abaqus verify -user_std at the prompt and hit enter. Check that the “Abaqus/Standard with user subroutines” test passes. If it passes, your installation of Abaqus is now ready to compile and link to user defined subroutines.