You can partition selected cells by cutting them with a plane. You first select the cells to partition and then select one of three methods to define the plane that partitions the cells. The three methods are:
Select a point and any straight edge. The cutting plane will pass through the point, normal to the edge.
Select three points. The cutting plane will pass through all three points.
Select a straight or curved edge and a point on the edge. The cutting plane will pass through the point, normal to the edge at the selected point.
To partition cells using the plane method:
From the main menu bar, select Tools
Partition.
The Create Partition dialog box appears. Abaqus/CAE displays prompts in the prompt area to guide you through the procedure.
Tip:
You can also use the plane method to partition cells using the 
tool, located with the partition cell tools in the module toolbox. For a diagram of the partition tools in the toolbox, see “Using the Partition toolset,” Section 70.2.
From the Type radio buttons at the top of the dialog box, choose Cell.
The Method list displays the methods that you can use to partition a cell.
From the list of methods, select Define cutting plane.
If the part or assembly contains more than one cell, select the cells to partition. You can use a combination of drag select, [Shift] + Click, and [Ctrl] + Click to select more than one cell to partition.
Tip: If you are unable to select the desired cells, you can use the Selection toolbar to change the selection behavior. For more information, see “Using the selection options,” Section 6.3.
Abaqus/CAE highlights the selected cell.
From the prompt area, click one of the following methods to define the cutting plane:
Use the Point & normal method to partition the selected cells along a plane that passes through a selected point and is normal to a selected straight edge or datum axis, as shown in the following figure:
Use the 3 Points method to partition the selectes cells along a plane passing through three selected points, as shown in the following figure:
Use the Normal to edge method to partition the selected cells along a plane that is normal to a selected edge and passes through a selected point on the edge. The edge can be straight or curved, and need not be part of the cells being partitioned, although you cannot select a datum axis. This method is useful when you want to partition a cell normal to a curved edge, as shown in the following figure:
Select points and edges as directed by the prompts in the prompt area. Points can be vertices, midpoints, arc centers, or datum points.
In the prompt area, click Create Partition.
Abaqus/CAE creates the partition.
