The monotonous and dull way of teaching results in unsatisfied teaching effects of steel structure principles. To improve students' perceptual knowledge about the whole loading progress of steel specimens, failure models and stress distribution, the finite element program ABAQUS was used in the teaching of steel structure principles. It can make the teaching of complicated steel principles more visualized and lifelike, such as seismic behavior, stability damage and stress concentration. The result shows that this method can effectively enhance students' interest in learning and improve the teaching quality.