Creating a Butt Splice Zone

You can create butt splice zones, where the splicing of plies is performed without overlapping because of a structure element positioning, for example.

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

  1. From the Producibility, Flattening and Splicing section of the action bar, click Butt Splice Zone .
  2. Select the surface on which the zones are created.
  3. Define the contour of the Butt Splice Zone.

    See Creating a Contour for more information.

    The contour must be closed.

    Note: For a better result, do not define the contour as a closed contour intersected by a curve such as this one

  4. Select the Elements to which the zone applies (stacking, plies groups, sequences, plies).

    • Multiselection of entities is available.
    • In the dialog box that appears, gives access to the Stacking Management.

  5. Optional: Set a Gap size between spliced cut-pieces.

    In the image below, the Gap size is shown by the double-headed arrow, with the two blue squares figuring cut-pieces. If the Gap size value is greater than 0, a small gap is created between butt spliced cut-pieces:

  6. The butt splice gap is created by creating a parallel to the splicing curve. Choose the Gap parallel type.

A Butt Splice Zones group is created under the Stacking, if it does not already exist, and the Butt Splice Zone is created in that group.

Notes:
  • If the number of intersections between the splicing curve and the zone is not equal to the number of intersections between the overlap curve (parallel to the splicing curve) and the zone, the butt-splice curve cannot be defined.
  • If you create splice plies, this is what you obtain: Within the Butt Splice Zone, the cut-pieces do not overlap, and there is a small gap between them.

  • Butt Splice Zones are taken into account by Skin Swapping if you select the Stacking node.
  • If the Skin Swapping was applied to elements under the stacking, you can generate a Skin Swapping feature for the Butt Splice Zones by selecting either a zone or its group. In this case, a Skin Swapping feature is added at the end of the Composites Geometry of the corresponding elements.