Welcome to TruPlan learning

Autodesk® TruPlan is a CAD-independent software tool designed to help you test the manufacturability of composite parts during the design process. TruPlan enables you to assess the cost-impact of design features and surface definitions across multiple manufacturing processes, such as Automated Fiber Placement (AFP), Automated Tape Laying (ATL), and Hand Layup (HLU).

To learn more about TruPlan, use the panel on the left to browse the table of contents. To get back to this home page at any time, in the upper-left corner, click the TruPlan logo.

TruPlan release notes

2019

See the latest readme for information on known issues and more.

• File Import:
  • Support for reading manufacturing boundary (Ext) from FiberSim XML.
  • Support for comma separators for CATIA Composites XML.
• Tessellation:
  • Support for editing a tessellated surface.
  • Mesh conversion is no longer necessary with tessellation editing and has been removed from the user interface.
• Apply: Click Apply to view results before closing a dialog box. Supported for:
• Projections
• Document Settings
• Flat Pattern Editing:
  • Right-click a flat pattern and select Edit Flat Pattern to make changes to it in the Inventor Sketch environment.
  • Right-click a ply and select Add Flat Pattern to manually create a flat pattern that is not associated with a strategy.
• Sub-Plies:
  • Add a strategy to a sub-ply.
  • Duplicate, copy, and paste sub-plies.
  • Include sub-plies in laser projection data and nesting data.
• Projections: Support for batch projections.
• Strategy Table: Support for selecting or changing seed points and curves.
• Laser Projection Data: A warning will be shown if a preview might take a long time.
• Plane: You can now use triads (axis controls) to create a plane.

2018.2 Update

See the latest readme for information on known issues and more.

• File Import:
  • Import an existing Inventor surface, a tessellated TruPlan surface, or an external STL file.
  • FiberSim XML is also supported. You can create surface offsets every set number of plies, as well as create strategies with seed curves.
• Tessellate a surface: Tessellation settings are easier to understand, and preview is supported. Replace a surface while retaining all references to plies and layups. Note: "Save as STL file" has been removed.
• Point preview and snap: When creating a point, click in the application window to see a preview of its position. You can do this as often as needed until you click OK to close the Point dialog box and fix the point in place. Also, snap to Inventor edges, vertices, and curves is now supported.
• Surface offset calculation: Creation of offset nodes on surfaces, which requires a lot of disk space, is now optional. You can use these alternate methods in strategies for calculating offsets without increasing file size:
  • Simulate the offset value of the current ply, or;
  • Use the most recently calculated ply offset.
• Strategy table: Create and apply views, copy and paste values, and import and export data.
• Point triads: Move, rotate, and translate rosette points using click-and-drag on point triads.
• Pre-selection: A pre-selected object can now be used by clicking the selection arrow button in the active dialog box.
• Browser: Set a folder as default, drag-and-drop and copy and paste to reorder items.
• Laser projection data dialog box: Settings are redesigned, easier to find, and combined into one dialog box.
• Thickness offsets: Improved flexibility in how to create and manage offsets.
• File size: File size has been greatly reduced.

2018.1 Update

See the readme for information on known issues and more.

• Manufacturing data (laser projection): You can now create targets, projectors, extra geometry, 3D text, and laser parameters, and export them with laser projection data.
• Batch add strategies/analyses: You can now select a root, layup, or sequence node in the TruPlan browser to add multiple strategies or analyses to a project.
• Guide curve offset: This propagation mode is now supported; requires a projected curve as the seed curve.
• Preview tessellated surface: You can preview surface tessellation results before saving.
• Show workpiece: This command has been implemented in the layup context menu.
• Show boundaries: This command has been implemented in the ply context menu.
• Find in window: This has been implemented in the context menu for several browser nodes. It finds the corresponding object in the application window and zooms in automatically.
• Browser tree: Expand/collapse status is now persistent when closing and re-opening files.

Version 2.0

• Strategies: Mesh trimming has been implemented.
• Ply thickness calculation is now supported:
  • During import
  • In strategies
  • Directly in plies
  • For cured or uncured plies in layups
• Laser projection:
  • More output formats are supported, including LPT (.xml), LAP (.lpd), SL (.sl), Assembly Guidance (.prt), and 3D DXF.
  • Offset mode has been implemented.
  • The dialog box has been redesigned, and you can now include a list of selected plies.
• Nesting data output: The dialog box has been redesigned, and you can now include a list of selected plies.
• Fabric Draping: The draping algorithm has been improved.

Version 1.0.2

• Fabric Draping: Hand layup is now supported in TruPlan.  
• Strategies: The strategy dialog box has been redesigned to simplify your workflow. You can now create a strategy with a single click using recent settings.  
• Layup Direction: This is now indicated with an arrow graphic in the TruPlan window. 
• Create Plane: You can now create a plan on which to place flat geometry. 

Version 1.0.1

• Add Rosette: Create rosettes and edit existing rosettes.  
• Add Curve: Draw lines, splines, arcs, and so on in the Inventor 3D Sketch environment. The curve can serve as ply boundary after being projected onto a surface. 
• Reference Surface: Manually re-link STL files as surfaces. 
• Tessellate Surface: Manually tessellate a surface to improve its mesh. This creates a new surface and corresponding STL file in your project. 
• Analysis Improvements: 
  • Analysis display in gradient is now supported
  • Angle and Tow Length analyses have been refined 
  • Add All Analyses is now supported
• Unit Settings: You can set your default units in Inventor under Tools > Document settings. This setting is respected in TruPlan. 
• Undo/Redo: Undo and redo now work as expected.
• Sample File: New sample file MaleCoreTool.ipt included in C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\TruPlan <version>\TruPlanSamples. 

Version 1.0

• First release of TruPlan on Inventor