Materials for Composites
A composite part potentially uses multiple different types of material, since different plies or cores in the same part might use different material types. The name of the material used by a given ply or core is extracted from CAD file metadata, and that name is established as the value of the GCD property Material Name.
Because of this, when you cost a composite part, you don’t select a material in the Material Selection dialog. Instead, aPriori extracts the material type for each ply and core, and the cost model looks up material properties by material type in the material table for the current VPE.
Note that aPriori converts the CAD file metadata into GCD property values with the help of a Composites mapping file. The default mapping file supports CAD files that contain published Fibersim or CPD ply design data. The mapping file is a fully customizable XSLT file. If you need to support additional metadata formats, contact aPriori Professional Services.
Important ply material properties include the following:
• Deformation Average Angle: used to help determine layup speed for Ply Placing operations.
• Material Cost per Area: drives material costs.
• Material Utilization: drives materials costs, as well as machine selection and setup costs for Ultrasonic Cut.
• Material Width: drives times, costs and machine selection for automated layup processes as well as for Ultrasonic Cut.
