Creating a Ply Book in Drafting

In Drafting, you can generate a ply book from the manufacturing Composites Design data structure.

  • Capability to choose which Composites entities are associated with the sheets created (one sheet per Ply or Cut-Piece, one sheet with all Cut-Pieces or one sheet per sequence).
  • For each new added sheet, creation of all the views corresponding to the reference sheet ones, in terms of quantity, types, and properties.
  • For each new created view, the link to the ply or sequence is replaced by the corresponding ply or sequence for the ply book.
  • Capability to choose and customize the "VB Macro" used for cartridge generation associated with all sheets.
  • Capability to choose between a generation mode or an update mode.
  • Update mode verifies entity names and order between work area and all the sheets.
  • Printing of all the sequence sheets is possible.
  • Additional views or sheets must be manually inserted in Drafting.

An error message is displayed if:

  • You have not selected an entity as input.
  • The reference sheet does not contain any view.
  • One or several reference views are not linked to Composites Design entities.
  • The Cartridge VBScript file does not exist.

This task shows you how to:

See Also
About Generative View Styles for Composites Design

Create a Reference Sheet

To create a Ply Book, you must first create a Reference Sheet.

  1. Clear the Disable generative view style usage option in the Administration section of Drafting Preferences.
  2. Make the GVS for Composites Design available: In your installation directory, copy CompositesGVSContourOnly.xml, CompositesGVSExplodedOnly.xml, CompositesGVSFlattenOnly.xml from \resources\standard\generativeparameters\SAMPLES to \resources\standard\generativeparameters
  3. Start Drafting. Select Empty sheet and click Finish.
  4. Click Front View .
  5. Select a Generative View Style from the list.
  6. In the Composites Design tab, holding Ctrl-key down, select a ply, its reference surface and a projection plane. An oriented view is displayed. In Drafting, drag the frame:

    You have created a first front view:

  7. Create a second identical front view if you require shaded plies and need to annotate views:
    1. Repeat the steps above.
    2. When you have positioned this second view, right-click it in the tree, select Superpose and select the frame of the first view. Both views are superposed.
    3. Right-click the first front view and select Properties.
    4. Set View generation mode to Exact view in the Generation tab.
    5. Repeat this step with the second front view but specify the View generation mode as Raster and click Options to select the type of Shading.

    • The first front view is an exact view, to draw ply contours and add annotations.
    • The second front view is a raster view to draw the ply highlight shell.
    • All the views of the reference sheet must be linked to the same ply or sequence (and only one entity). However, each view can be linked to other 3D entities as required.
    • Each view can have:
      • Its own GVS with attributes specific for Composites entities
      • Its own angle and scale.
    • If the reference sheets contain several views, the different views (front, top, right, iso) are created and positioned as required on the sheet.

Generate a Ply Book

You can generate the ply book in Drafting.

  1. In Drafting, click New Ply Book .
  2. Select a Generation Level:
    • One sheet per ply or cut-piece
    • One sheet per ply (all cut-pieces)
    • One sheet per sequence.

    • A default Cartridge VBScript file is proposed. Click ... and browse your directories to select another file.
    • You can modify the cartridge using a VBScript macro. A sample Drawing_Cartridge_PlyBook.CATScript is provided under C:\Program Files\DassaultSystemes\Bxx\intel_a\VBScript\FrameTitleBlock
    • You can add specific data to the cartridge in new lines or columns.
    • You cannot modify the macro input method signature, that is, you cannot avoid Composites Design data generation in the cartridge.
    • To create a cartridge with a macro or interactively, you must respect the following naming conventions:
      • For the ply: TitleBlock_Text_PlyName
      • For the material: TitleBlock_Text_PlyMaterial
      • For the direction: TitleBlock_Text_PlyDirection
      • For the thickness: TitleBlock_Text_PlyThickness
      • For the sequence: TitleBlock_Text_PlySequence
      • For the ply group: TitleBlock_Text_PlyGroup

  3. Select the Generate from reference sheet for the following entities check box, and select the required entities from the tree.

    Notes:
    • You can select the stacking or a group of plies, sequences, oror individual plies, cut-pieces you want to export.
    • One sheet per sequence prevents the selection of individual plies or cores.

  4. Select the Use Stacking Text as Separator check box.

    This check box lets you define work instruction directly in the 3D Model.

    New Ply Book collects and interprets the stacking text defined in plies, sequences and plies groups.
    • A sheet is inserted in the ply book.
    • An annotation is created in this sheet, with the stacking text content.
  5. With your selection highlighted in the dialog box, click OK.
    • A new sheet is created for each composite entity.
    • If you have selected a sequence or a ply pointed by the reference sheet views, no new sheet is created for it, that is, the reference sheet is not duplicated.
    • A copy of all the views of the reference sheet is created for all other plies in new sheets with:
      • The same view properties (Type, Angle, Scale)
      • The same position in the sheet.
      • The same links (except for the link to ply or sequence).
    • For each view, the link to the ply or sequence is replaced by the corresponding ply or sequence for the ply book.
    • If you have selected One sheet per sequence, and if a view of the reference sheet references a ply (or the other way around), the links in the reference sheet change and are associated with the sequence.

    Example of tree:

    Example of a sheet:

    Example of a cartridge:

    Note:

    A cartridge is generated in the reference sheet and in all the new sheets (Background view) through a VBScript file. It contains:

    • Composites Design information (Ply name, Direction, Material, Thickness, Sequence ID, Group ID).
    • Part information (Part Number, Part Description).
    • Generic information (Date, Designer, Scale …).
    • If you create one sheet per ply, and have selected a ply without geometry but with an OpenBody named Notes (that name is compulsory) that contains notes (knowledge parameters), those notes are added in the Notes box of the cartridge. You are also warned that the raster view for this ply could not be generated.

Update a Ply Book

You need to update the Ply Book when names of plies or sequences or cut-pieces have changed, or plies or sequences or cut-pieces have been reordered.

  1. InDrafting, click New Ply Book .
  2. Select Update current ply book (names, order) and click OK.
    New Ply Book
    • Scans the existing sheets and verifies that the sheet names and cartridge information are exact for each sheet.
    • Scans the Composites Design part stacking and check if plies/sequences/cut-piece have been reordered compared to the ply book sheets.
    • Does not take into account the Generation Level.

    After an update:

    • The drawing is updated
    • The corresponding cartridges are updated.