Once you have indicated the appropriate contact criteria, Abaqus/CAE searches your model to locate the surfaces that meet those criteria. For a discussion of how Abaqus/CAE interprets search criteria and detects contact pair candidates, see “The contact detection algorithm,” Section 15.6.2.
To perform a search for contact pairs:
From the main menu, select either Interaction
Find contact pairs or ConstraintFind contact pairs.
Tip:
You can also find contact pairs using the 
tool in the Interaction module toolbox.
Abaqus/CAE displays the contact detection dialog box.
Enter the search parameters as described in “Specifying search criteria for contact detection,” Section 15.16.1.
Click Find Contact Pairs.
Abaqus/CAE searches for potential contact pairs. When the search is complete, Abaqus/CAE populates the contact pair candidates table.
To abort a search before it is complete, click Stop in the prompt area.
