Merging/Boolen operation in ABAQUS Cae to produce inclusion/matrix Unit cell

Hi,

I am trying to do with ABAQUS Cae now what I usually and successfully did with MSC Patran - produce a unit cell for particle reinforced composite. In other words,  I need to generate a "ball in a box" model.

So, I produce a part Cube and a  part Ball. After that I create Sections and Instances (what seems to be unnecessary if comparing with Patran, but apparently needed to link CAE with CADs), and assign Materias (lets say, Glass to Ball, and Polymer to Cube).

If I simply Merge two parts, Cube and Ball (using Instance-Merge+Cut procedure), the material in the overlapping areas has two definitions - both Glass and Polymer - correct?

To avoid this situation, I need first to Cut the Ball from Cube (creating a New Instance "Matrix with voids") and only after that I merge the Instances (creating "Composite") - is this correct?   But when I cut Ball from Cube, the ball disappears from the model, remains only its Part. So, in order to create a Composite, I need to create the Instance  Ball again. Is this correct, or is there a better, simpler way to do all this?

Leon