Abaqus/CAE displays line-type contours as customized colored lines on the surface of your model. You can stylize individual contour lines to make them easy to distinguish. This option is particularly useful when colors are not available; for example, for black and white hard-copy plotting. Figure 44–5 shows a contour plot with customized contour lines.
You customize the colored lines one color (interval) at a time, referring to each interval by its position in the contour legend. Interval number 1 is the first colored line starting from the bottom of the contour plot legend. For information on the contour legend, see “Customizing the legend,” Section 56.1.
To stylize line-type contours:
Locate the Line options.
Select Options
Contour from the main menu bar or click 
in the toolbox. Click the Color & Style tab in the dialog box that appears; then click the Line tab. The Line options appear.
To choose the interval you want to customize, click the Interval arrows until the desired interval number appears in the Interval box.
Note: The Style and Thickness buttons change to show the current style and thickness of this interval, respectively. The numbers above and below the Interval box change to correspond to the adjacent interval numbers. The area above and below the Style and Thickness buttons changes to show the style and thickness, respectively, of these adjacent intervals.
Choose the style of the interval line:
Click the Style button to reveal the style choices.
Click the style you want.
The specified style appears on the Style button.
Choose the thickness of the interval line:
Click the Thickness button to reveal the thickness choices.
Click the thickness you want.
The specified thickness appears on the Thickness button.
Repeat Steps 2 through 4 to customize additional intervals.
Click Apply to implement your changes.
The contour lines of the line-type contour plot in the current viewport change to reflect your style and thickness specifications. The contour legend, if active, will also change to show your selections. For more information on the contour legend, see “Customizing the legend,” Section 56.1. In addition, tick mark axes, if present, will change to show your selections. For more information on tick mark contours, see “Contouring line-shaped elements with tick mark contour plots,” Section 44.5.4.
By default, your changes are saved for the duration of the session and will affect all subsequent contour plots. If you want to retain your changes for subsequent sessions, save them to a file. For more information, see “Saving customizations for use in subsequent sessions,” Section 55.1.1.
