Adding Material to Plies Manually

You can add material to plies, to solve manufacturing constraints.

Note: This task is available in Composites Design and Composites Manufacturing Preparation.

  1. From the Skin Swapping and Ply Extensions section of the action bar, click Material Addition .
  2. Pick the vertices of the plies to modify.
    A preview of minimum length and shape angle is displayed and the dialog box is updated.

  3. Select one of the usual shapes to initialize the addition of material.
    • adds a rectangular shape to the ply, with a 45/135 degrees draping angle, a 90 degrees shape angle, and both sides positioning (rectangle) for all vertices.
    • adds a triangular shape to the ply, with a 45/135 degrees draping angle, a 90 degrees shape angle, and one side positioning (triangle) for all vertices.
    • adds a triangular shape to the ply, with a normal return to contour, a 45/135 degrees draping angle, a shape angle that ensures a normal return, and one side positioning (triangle) for all vertices.
      Note: The return angle may be more than 90 degrees.
    The polyhedron is visualized on the last selected ply. The parameters modification applies to this ply. You can define different parameters for the plies listed in the dialog box. Those parameters are editable.
  4. If relevant, select Other side.
  5. For a better balance of material, select Force alternate side.
    • Force alternate side is not selected. The material is added always on the same side.

    • Force alternate side is selected. The material is added on one side, then on the other.

  6. Define the Fiber draping angle from its value or the direction of a selected curve.
  7. Optional: Modify the Minimum length.
  8. Define the Shape angle and the Limit angle value.
    • Either as a Fixed angle.
    • Or as an Angle from original ply contour vertex.
  9. Define the value of the Lateral staggering (represented by the double-headed arrows below).

    Notes:
    • The display of the polyhedron is updated in the work area as you modify the parameters.
    • Messages are displayed when the computation of the added material is impossible or requests your attention.
  10. To minimize ply crossing, select Turn off.
    • If Turn off is not selected, the lateral staggering is computed.

    • If Turn off is selected, no lateral staggering is selected, only the minimum cut length is taken into account.

      Note: Turning the lateral staggering off is different from setting it to 0.

  11. Click one arrow in the 3D area, or Next to define the Positioning:

The Material addition is created in the work area, under Ply > Geometries. It can be edited.

Adding material to a ply reverts to merging a 4-side polyhedron to the ply contour. For example:

results in



results in

  • The red line represents the minimum length.
  • α represents the shape angle.
  • β represents the fiber draping angle.
  • Lateral staggering is shown by the double-headed arrows below:

  • The blue line represents the material width, which is not imposed. Hence cases like the following one are not supported: