The MSC.Laminate Modeler generates laminate materials and element properties when creating or modifying a layup, or when creating solid elements. Additional capabilities are provided for advanced users who need greater control over the creation of the analysis model. For example, when using MSC.Nastran, the user can align the laminate materials using several different methods such as using coordinate systems or specified vectors.

The procedure followed for generating an analysis model is as follows. The MSC.Laminate Modeler stores warp angle, weft angle and thickness data for every element making up a ply. When a layup is created, the total material definition on every element can be defined. By default, angle data is specified with respect to the first edge of every element.

The next step is to transform this angle data to the angle definition system required by the selected element type. For example, the projection of a vector onto each element may be used as the basis for defining laminate material orientations. This allows the program to calculate a corresponding laminate material on each element.

However, it is generally unwieldy to define a laminate material per element for large models which may contain over a hundred thousand elements. Hence, a sorting mechanism is invoked to identify a minimum number of materials within the user-defined tolerance.

The analysis model can become complicated due to the continuous variation of fiber direction over curved surfaces. Verification tools allow the user to show the layer thickness and orientations on any element in the model. This capability can be used even if conventional techniques have been used to define the composites model, or legacy analysis files have been imported into Patran.