Define the laminate to be used in the analysis feature.
The Laminate tab is the first tab encountered in all four of the laminate analysis feature windows. The image below shows the Laminate tab as it appears in the Laminate Properties window.
If Use Most Recent Laminate is checked under Preferences, the Laminate tab is populated with the laminate most recently used in a given session. Otherwise, the Laminate tab is similar to the New Laminate window described earlier in the Create a New Laminate section. With it, the laminate can be defined in either of two ways:
- Use an existing Laminate - Any laminate stored in the material database can be loaded into the Laminate tab. To view the list of available laminates in the database, click the Open button on the Laminate tab. You can select any laminate from the list by double-clicking the name of the desired laminate, which prompts Helius Composite to read the appropriate material data file and display the laminate's data in the Laminate tab window. The laminate data shown in the display window of the Laminate tab includes the material type, thickness, and fiber orientation angle for each of ply in the laminate. You can also view a model of the laminate in the ply stack visualization window to verify the laminate is built correctly.
- Create a new Laminate - Instead of using a laminate stored in the material database, you can build a new laminate using the same procedure described earlier (Create a New Laminate). After defining the material and geometric data for the new laminate, give the laminate a name (in the Laminate Name box) and click Save to store the new laminate in the material database before performing any analysis on the laminate.
