Displaying the Fiber Direction

This task shows you how to display theoretical fiber directions of a given ply by indicating a point inside the ply geometry.
Available in Composites Engineering Design (CPE) and Composites Design for Manufacturing (CPM).
Open the Flattening1.CATPart document.

  1. Click Fiber Direction in the Flattening toolbar. The Fiber Direction dialog box is displayed.

  2. Select the ply on which you want to display the theoretical fiber directions.
    In our scenario we have selected Ply.26.
    The name of the ply is displayed in the Selection field.

    No producibility feature is required for the selected ply.

  3. Pick a point inside the ply boundaries:

    • if you select an existing GSD point, it must be lying on the ply shell and be inside the ply boundaries.
    • if you pick no existing point, the system computes a point under the mouse pointer and on the ply reference surface and inside the ply boundaries.

    A colored axis system is displayed:

    • if you have selected the Theoretical fiber orientations check box, the long and blue solid axis corresponds to the primary fiber direction, and the short and red solid axis to the 90 degree off angle.
    • if you have selected the Rosette transfer check box, the green dotted axis corresponds to the X-axis of the rosette, and the white dotted axis to the Y-axis.
    • you can select both check boxes:

  4. Click Keep to create the lines corresponding to the axes displayed.

  5. Select the Automatically aggregate geometry under selected ply check box, if required.

  6. Click OK to validate the action and exit the dialog box.
    Datum lines corresponding to the Theoretical fiber orientations axes or the Rosette transfer axes are created in the current In Work Object.
    If the current In Work Object is not a geometrical set, or is a Composites body, they will be created in a new geometrical set.
    They have the same colors and dimensions as displayed.