Chapter 11: Creating an Application¶

Chapter Overview¶

This section explains how to create an application, such as Abaqus/CAE. It also describes the high-level infrastructure responsible for running the application.

Chapter Contents¶

• About GUI code
• Launch script
• Licensing and execution
• Application object
• Main window

About GUI code¶

When creating a customized application, you need to create the following components:

1. Application object - Manages the application lifecycle
2. Main window - Provides a container for the user interface
3. Modules and toolsets - Provide specific functionality
4. Modes - Handle user interaction

GUI code files¶

A typical GUI application contains the following files:

• application.py - Application entry point
• mainWindow.py - Main window implementation
• moduleGui.py - GUI module definitions
• toolsetGui.py - GUI toolset definitions
• modes.py - Mode definitions

Launch script¶

The launch script initializes the application and starts the event loop.

from abaqusGui import *

# Create the application object
app = AFXApp()

# Create the main window
mainWindow = MyMainWindow(app)

# Initialize and run
app.init(sys.argv)
app.run()

Launch arguments¶

The launch script can accept arguments to control the application's behavior.

Licensing and execution¶

License configuration¶

The license checked out when the application starts is controlled by the application configuration.

Execution method¶

abaqus cae -custom myApplication -noStartup

Application object¶

The AFXApp class is the application object.

Application object methods¶

• init(sys.argv) - Initialize the application
• run() - Start the event loop
• exit() - Exit the application

Main window¶

The AFXMainWindow class provides the main window.

Main window components¶

• Title bar
• Menu bar
• Toolbar
• Context bar
• Module toolbox
• Drawing area and canvas
• Prompt area
• Message area
• Command line interface