In Abaqus there is a direct relationship between geometry and the final meshed shape: if we want to defeature or do an axisymmetric analysis, the geometry needs to be modified*. On the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, this is not the case. The geometry can remain unchanged. One or more abstraction shapes can be connected to the geometry, to represent simplified geometry. In this blog I will show this process for a bolt-and-nut assembly. We will have an axisymmetric model and 3D model based on the same geometry.

*An exception to this is the use of virtual topology. This allows small differences between mesh and geometry, by ignoring entities. This way you do not force the mesh to create element edges along all geometrical edges.