An optimization is an iterative process that modifies the structure of your model while it searches for an optimized solution given a set of objectives and constraints that must be satisfied. This section briefly describes the components of an optimization that you can create with the Optimization module. For more detailed information, see “Structural optimization: overview,” Section 13.1.1 of the Abaqus Analysis User's Guide.

The following topics are covered:

• “About tasks,” Section 18.3.1

• “About design responses,” Section 18.3.2

• “About objective functions,” Section 18.3.3

• “About constraints,” Section 18.3.4

• “About geometric restrictions,” Section 18.3.5

• “About stop conditions,” Section 18.3.6

• “About optimization processes,” Section 18.3.7