Objective: View fiber directions that have been mapped to composite Plies.
Plies use Discrete Fields to define per-Element fiber directions with a 3D vector per Element. These vectors can be plotted on Ply at a time using the process described below.
Plies with per-Element fiber directions mapped to them. See How to Map Fiber Directions to Plies.
Turn on Ply Visualization. See How to Display Plies.
Two toggles for fiber directions are found on the Composite tab of the Ribbon.
The "AFP Direction" button on the Ribbon will toggle on the Discrete Field vectors associated with the Ply, drawn with a cyan color. The "Fiber Reference Direction" button will toggle on the fiber direction as defined by the Element material axis and the overall Ply orientation. Note that these fiber directions may not be in alignment depending on the source of the Discrete Field vectors (such as an AFP path simulation).
Note
The vectors are only shown on the top-most visible ply. It will be necessary to hide Plies to view fiber directions on interior Plies.
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Plot individual components of the fiber direction vectors using the Custom Data option in the Legend.
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Interpolate fiber directions if any Elements in a Ply are missing fiber direction data. Button located on Ply Manager.
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Analyze Plies to get updated margins corresponding to as-manufactured fiber directions. See How to Analyze Plies.