Creating a Ply Book

This task will show you how to generate a ply book from the manufacturing CPD data structure with the following functionalities: 
  • 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 will check entity names and order between 3D viewer and all the sheets.

You will learn how to:
Part_01.CATPart from the samples\Composites directory.

You must have created a Reference Sheet:

  1. Start Mechanical Design > Drafting.
    In the dialog box that appears, select Empty sheet and click OK.

  2. In the Projections toolbar, click Advanced Front View .
    Select a Generative View Style and click OK.

  3. In the Composites Design window, holding Ctrl-key down, select a ply (Ply.1), its reference surface (Extrude.1) and a projection plane (xz plane).
    An oriented view is displayed.
    In the Drafting window, drag and drop the frame:

    You have created a first front view:

  4. If you require shaded plies and need to annotate views, you need to create a second identical front view:

    • The first one will be an exact view, to draw ply contours and add annotations,
    • The second one will be a raster view to draw the ply highlight shell.

    Repeat the steps above. When you have positioned this second view, right-click it and select Superpose in the contextual menu.

    and select the frame of the first view.
    Both views are superposed.
    Now right-click the first front view and select Properties.
    Make sure that View generation mode is set to Exact view in the View tab.

    Repeat this step with the second front view but set the View generation mode to Raster and click Options to select the type of Shading.
  • 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. See Producing Drawings with Generative View Styles for more information.
    • its own angle and scale.
  • If the reference sheets contains several views,
    the different views (front, top, right, iso) are created and positioned as desired on the sheet.

     

Generating a Ply Book

  1. In the Drafting workbench, click New Ply Book in the Composites Ply Book toolbar (deep on the right side).
    The Ply Book dialog box is displayed:

  2. Select the Generation Level you need

    A default Cartridge VBScript file is proposed. Click ... and browse your directories to select another file.
  • You can provide a default path for the template in the Tools>Options>Mechanical Design>Composites Design tabpage.
  • 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, i.e. you cannot avoid Composites Design data generation in the cartridge
  • To create a cartridge via 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
 

  1. In the Composites Design window, select the stacking.
    You can select the stacking or a group of plies, sequences or individual plies, cut-pieces or cores you want to export.
    The dialog box is updated accordingly:
 
If you select One sheet per sequence, you cannot select individual plies or cores.
 

  1. With Stacking highlighted in the dialog box, click OK.
    A progress bar is displayed while the sheets are computed.
    • A new sheet is created per composite entities,
    • If you have selected a sequence or a ply pointed by the reference sheet views, ia new sheet will not be created for it, i.e. 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 will change and will be associated with the sequence.

    Example of specification tree:

    Example of a sheet:

    Detail of the cartridge:

    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.

  • Printing of all the sequence sheets is possible.
  • Additional views or sheets must be manually inserted in the drafting workbench.
 
  An error message will be 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.
 

Updating a Ply Book

An Update of the Ply Book is required when:

  • names of plies or sequences or cut-pieces have changed,
  • plies or sequences or cut-pieces have been re-ordered.

  1. In the Composites Design part, change names of plies, for example, change Ply.1 and Ply.2 to P1.1 and P2.2.

  2. In the Drafting workbench, click New Ply Book .
    The Ply Book dialog box is displayed:

  3. Select Update current ply book (names, order) and click OK.
    New Ply Book:

    • scans the existing sheets and check if 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 re-ordered compared to the ply book sheets,
    • does not take into account the Generation Level.

    When the update is done:

    • The name of the sheets corresponding to Ply.1 and Ply.2 have changed from Sequence.1-Ply.1 to Sequence.1-P1.1 and from Sequence.2-Ply.2 to Sequence.2-P2.2 (in the specification tree and on the sheets):
    • The corresponding cartridges have changed too: