To define an actuator/sensor interaction:

1. From the main menu bar, select InteractionCreate.

   Tip:  You can also create an actuator/sensor interaction using the tool in the Interaction module toolbox.

2. In the Create Interaction dialog box that appears, do the following:

   • Name the interaction. For more information about naming objects, see “Using basic dialog box components,” Section 3.2.1.

   • Select the initial step.

   • Select the Actuator/sensor type of interaction.

3. Click Continue to close the Create Interaction dialog box.

4. From the assembly, select the point where the interaction will be applied. Click mouse button 2 to indicate you have finished selecting the point.

   Tip:  You can limit the types of objects that you can select in the viewport by specifying filtering options in the Selection toolbar. See “Using the selection options,” Section 6.3, for more information.

   Abaqus/CAE displays the Edit Interaction dialog box.

5. Enter the necessary data in the Edit Interaction dialog box. The required data are a function of your user-defined element subroutine. You may need to create real and integer actuator/sensor interaction properties. For more information, see “Defining an actuator/sensor interaction property,” Section 15.14.8.

   The following table indicates the correspondence between the fields in the Edit Interaction dialog box and the variables in user subroutine UEL.

   
   

   Field	UEL variable
   User element type id	JTYPE
   Degrees of freedom	NDOFEL
   Number of coordinate components	MCRD
   Solution-dependent state variables	SVARS and NSVARS

   
   
   The real and integer values entered into an actuator/sensor interaction property are used by the PROPS, JPROPS, NPROPS, and NJPROPS variables. For a description of all the variables that can be passed into user subroutine UEL, see “User-defined elements,” Section 32.17.1 of the Abaqus Analysis User's Guide.