Command Line Interface

The default execution procedure invoked by abqpy inside the Python interpreter environment where it is installed is to run one of the two following command lines:

When there is a import abaqus or from abaqus import ... statement:
```
abaqus cae noGUI=script.py -- [args ...]
```
When there is a import odbAccess or from odbAccess import ... statement:
```
abaqus python script.py [args ...]
```

These commands lines are invoked when you run your script containing the above statements in your installed Python interpreter, with a simple command line launch:

python script.py [args ...]

However, there are other execution procedures that can be run with the abaqus command and also another options that could be passed to these commands. To supply that procedures and options, abqpy provides two alternatives. One of them is a separate command line interface (another alternative is to use an System Environment Variable).

usage: abqpy [-h] [-g [options ...] | -n [options ...] | -p [options ...]] [--] [script] [args ...]

The abqpy command line interface

positional arguments:
script                the python script to run
args                  arguments that will be passed to the python script

optional arguments:
-h, --help            show this help message and exit
-g [options ...], --cae-gui [options ...]
                        command line options used to run Abaqus/CAE command with the graphical user interface (GUI mode)
-n [options ...], --cae-nogui [options ...]
                        command line options used to run Abaqus/CAE command without the graphical user interface (noGUI mode)
-p [options ...], --python [options ...]
                        command line options used to run Abaqus Python command
--                    argument to pass the script after abaqus command line options

Currently, abqpy command line interface provides 3 execution modes: Abaqus/CAE Execution GUI and noGUI modes; and Abaqus Python Execution mode.

Examples

If you want to run you python script in Abaqus/CAE GUI mode, you could run:
```
abqpy script.py [args ...] -g
```

If you want to run you python script in Abaqus/CAE GUI or noGUI mode, providing the database file option, you could run:

abqpy script.py [args ...] -g database=file.odb # GUI mode

abqpy script.py [args ...] -n database=file.odb # noGUI mode

If you want to run you python script in Abaqus Python Execution mode, you could run:
```
abqpy script.py [args ...] -p
```
If you want to pass your python script file name after the abaqus command line options, you will need to use the -- argument before the script filename, to prevent abqpy from attempting to parse it to abaqus:
```
abqpy -g database=file.odb -- script.py [args ...]
```

Some moderns Python IDEs allow you to customize the default python launch parameters that will be passed to the interpreter. This feature permits to run abqpy command line interface as a module script and customize your default abaqus execution procedure.

Example: In VS Code Python Extension, you can specify the following setting:

"python.terminal.launchArgs": [ "-m", "abqpy", "-g", "--" ]

That setting will make VS Code Python Extension run by default all python script files in the integrated terminal with the following command line:

python -m abqpy -g -- script.py [args ...]

Which provides a way to change the default abaqus execution procedure to GUI mode.