You must create assembly-level wire features to define the underlying geometry for modeling connectors. The wire feature contains wires connecting points from the assembly in the current viewport or connecting points from the assembly to ground.

Abaqus/CAE provides two methods that you can use to create connector geometry for an assembly:

• The Connector Builder enables you to perform all the steps involved in modeling a connector: create a single assembly-level wire feature, optionally create reference points at its endpoints, assign it a connector section, and specify the orientations for either of its endpoints. You should use this dialog box to add a small number of wire features. See “Creating a single connector,” Section 15.12.8, for instructions on using the Connector Builder.

• The Create Wire Feature dialog box enables you to create multiple wires within a single wire feature. You should use this dialog box to define a large number of similar connectors. This dialog box creates the wire feature only; you must use other dialog boxes in the Interaction module to perform the subsequent modeling steps like creating reference points and datum coordinate systems, assigning connector sections to the wires, and specifying the orientations of the wires' endpoints. See “Creating or modifying wire features for multiple connectors,” Section 15.12.9, for instructions on using the Create Wire Feature dialog box.