PLM Plymaster
Need to develop complex layups for composites analysis?LM Plymaster is an add-on to Simulayt Laminate Modeler which greatly enhances composite design and analysis productivity. Working within the familiar environment of Excel, composite engineers are able to quickly develop complex layups, reflect selected plies and make major or minor changes to existing layups.
PLM Plymaster revolutionises the productivity of composite designers in the FEA environmentMatrix Applied Computing Ltd, a user of Laminate Modeler in the marine industry for a number of years, has developed a standalone add-on to Simulayt Laminate Modeler - LM Plymaster. This add-on has given productivity gains for complete projects of the order of a factor of 3. For carrying out design iterations, productivity gains are in the order of 10:1 over traditional methods.
Business Benefits
- Increase project productivity by up to a factor of 3
- Investigate design iterations up to ten times faster
- Manipulate and modify models faster within LM Plymaster
Who Could Benefit?- Marine engineers and designers
- Automotive engineers
- Aviation engineers
Product DetailTraditionally, a composite design engineer will develop and initial layup design defined in an Excel workbook. This information is then transferred into the Laminate Modeler by defining the ply material, start point, reference angle and thickness for each individual ply. If there are several plies making up the layup in different regions, this process can become tedious and error prone.
LM PlyMaster allows the user to reduce repetitive ply creation in the Laminate Modeller. The user need only define 1 template ply for each separate designated ply area. LM PlyMaster then accesses this information and allows the user to work within Excel where the information from the design workbook is linked to the ply regions defined in the Laminate Modeler.
From the specification of the single template plies, the engineer can generate additional plies by simple cut and paste operations, all within the familiar Excel environment. All additional editing such as layup manipulation, use of alternative materials, checking layup thickness, full or partial reflection of the structure, etc can all take place within Excel.
Once the user is satisfied with the layup for the complete structure, the information is read back into the Laminate Modeler where the complete layup is now automatically defined and all checking facilities within the Laminate Modeler can then be used to check materials, thicknesses and ply orientations.
The flexibility of LM PlyMaster allows design changes to be made in an extremely efficient manner from within LM PlyMaster. This can include re-meshing of regions, changes of material, addition and subtraction of plies in the layup and all manipulations that may be expected in a design project.
Why Matrix?LM Plymaster was developed internally at Matrix Applied Computing to improve layup times for the advanced composites work being carried out for the New Zealand marine industry. As such, Matrix specialists are intimately familiar with this product and how it can add value to your process.
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