Defining a Plies Group

You can define a plies group to contain the plies you are going to create. A ply is a piece of fabric made of several contours and sets of zones.

Notes:
  • This task is available in Composites Design, Composites Manufacturing Preparation and Composites Braiding.
  • Perform this scenario as many times as you need to create plies groups.

  1. From the Plies Design section of the action bar, click Plies Group .
  2. Optional: Edit the proposed name.
  3. Select the surface on which the plies are created.
  4. Optional: Click the red arrow or Reverse Direction to inverse the Draping direction.
  5. Select a Rosette from the list.
  6. Select or clear the Lock plies draping direction check box to impose the same draping direction to all the plies of the plies group, or not.
    • Select the Lock plies draping direction check box:
      • All the plies of the plies group inherit the draping direction defined in the plies group.
      • In the Ply definition dialog box, the Draping direction capability is disabled, Reverse Direction is inactive and inverting the draping direction by clicking its arrow is impossible.
      • If you decide to lock the draping direction after having already created plies, a message is displayed warning you that some plies have a different draping direction:
        • If you click OK to continue, the draping direction of those plies is inverted to match the draping direction of the plies group.
        • If you click Cancel, the Lock plies draping direction check box in the Plies group definition dialog box is cleared and the draping direction of those plies remains unchanged.
      • If you import a stack-up file:
        • If all the plies have the same draping direction as the plies group, nothing changes regarding the draping direction.
        • If all the plies have the same draping direction, but different from that of the plies group, the plies group takes that draping direction.
        • If some plies have a different direction, a warning is displayed, giving you the possibility of:
          • Clearing the Lock plies draping direction check box,
          • Or make the plies inherit the draping direction of the plies group,
          • Or cancel the import.
    • Clear the Lock plies draping direction check box:
      • You can now change the draping direction of plies irrespective of that defined for the plies group.
      • The draping direction of the ply table is applied to the plies irrespective of that defined for the plies group.
  7. Select or create (context menu) the plane used for flatten.
  8. If required, select the For non structural plies check box to indicate that plies in this plies group are nonstructural.

The feature (identified as Plies Group.xxx) is added to the tree, under the Stacking node. This node contains the structure for all the defined zones.