Rerouting Plies

You can re-route plies, i.e. change the shape of the contours of a group of plies to meet weight saving, minimum cutting or other criteria.

Notes:
  • This task is available in Composites Design.
  • The modifications made by Reroute ply contour are generative and not associative. However, if the virtual stacking is modified and if plies need to be updated, you must rework only the portions of the ply contour around the cells that have been added or removed.

  1. From the Grid Design section of the action bar, click Reroute Ply Contour .

    The original plies look like this:

  2. Select a reference ply.
  3. Define the new contour by its Start vertex

    and its End vertex

  4. Optional: Click the red arrow in the 3D area or click Other side in the dialog box to define the section to modify.
  5. Define the contour of the New route.

    • It is highlighted.
    • It can be made of one or several elements.
    • You cannot select a panel limit, but only ramp support curves and structural elements.
    • A green tip replaces the red cross when the selected curves form a valid contour.
    • Right-click New route to create missing wireframe elements.

  6. Click Add plies with same shape to select the plies of the similar shape to be rerouted too.

    • Multiselection is available.
    • in the dialog box that appears gives access to the Stacking Management.
    • The start and the end vertices of the Similar shape plies must be intersections of curves of the same ramp supports as the Reference ply. A warning is displayed if this is not the case.

The plies are rerouted:

Notes:
  • If the number of curves on the ramp support is not sufficient, an error icon appears, with the number of missing curves.
  • Warnings are issued for overlaps.