About Flatten Body Categorization

Cutting machines need information from the Composites design, retrieved from the Flatten Body using DXF layers.

Flatten Body elements are categorized into:

  • Outer Contours
  • Inner Contours
  • Rosette
  • Cuts
  • Markers
  • No Category (for remaining elements).

Each category is exported to a DXF layer to be used by the cutting machine.

In most cases, the categorization is done automatically at the creation of the Flatten Body. However:

  • You need to categorize the Flatten Body elements of older models,
  • Or to apply the Markers and Cut categories to newly created elements as they are not automatically recognized.

Note: Only Flattening and Unfold features can be automatically categorized:
  • Flattening, Flattening as Sketch, Flattening with optimization, Flattening as Sketch with optimization, Unfold are supported.
  • Flatten with disassemble mode optimization is not supported.
  • User selection is partially supported.

Following rules apply:

  • Only elements under a Flatten Body can be categorized.
  • Only visible elements can be categorized.
  • Only elements without categorization can be categorized.
  • Only the last modification of a feature can be categorized.

Once the Flatten Body elements have been categorized, the tree can be expanded as follows to verify the categorization:

  • Stacking:
    • Expand to Plies Groups
    • Expand to Sequences
    • Expand to Plies
    • Expand to Cut-Pieces
    • Expand to Composites Geometries
  • Plies Group:
    • Expand to Sequences
    • Expand to Plies
    • Expand to Cut-Pieces
    • Expand to Composites Geometries
  • Sequence:
    • Expand to Plies
    • Expand to Cut-Pieces
    • Expand to Composites Geometries
  • Ply:
    • Expand to Cut-Pieces
    • Expand to Composites Geometries