A.1 Basics

This tutorial will give you a basic step by step master for creating Fiber Patch Placement model for a gear box.

A.1.1 Patch Artist

A.1.1.1 Import the CAD model file

1. Access the Import drop-down in one of the following ways:

   • From the Menu bar, choose File > Import.

   • From the Quick access toolbar, click Import.

2. From the Import drop-down in the ribbon bar, click Import part.

3. Under File selection, browse to select the file, gear_box.step.

4. Click on Import.

   The file, gear_box.step, is now imported into the session.

   

   Fig. 1 Click on the image to zoom.

A.1.1.2 Define mount points

1. After importing the CAD model, go to its Systems in the explorer, right click on them and choose Create system.

   

2. This coordinate system will serve as the Mount point. Enter suitable values for the system’s position.

   

3. Afterwards, select the top-level CAD model from the explorer and choose the new system as its Mount point.

   

4. To see the mount point, you can toggle the Mount point visible property.

   

   The Mount point is now defined on the model and can be visualized as shown below:

   

A.1.1.3 Check and correct normals

1. Click on the option Show orientation from the Ribbon bar under the Render mode group.

   

2. Select an assembly or a face of the imported CAD model for which you want to check the normals.

   

3. Identify the faces whose normals are not oriented outward.

   

4. Select the incorrect faces one by one and click on the Reverse button from Property window to correct the normals.

   

   The corrected normals of Gear box is shown below:

   

A.1.1.4 Shape extractions

Extract surface

1. Right click on Shape extractions and click on Extraction surface.

   

2. Right click on the created surface and click on Select.

   

3. Extract surface from the model and then click on .

   

   Surface is now extracted with the name Surface 1 as shown below:

   

Extract boundary

Patch Artist automatically extracts Patch boundary with respect to the extracted surface. You can also define your own boundary. In this example, we are using default boundary extracted by Patch Artist.

Extract master curve

1. Right click on Shape extractions or Curves and click on Extract curve.

   

2. Right click on the created curve and click on Select.

   

3. Extract the Curve from the model and then click on .

   A Curve is now extracted with the name Curve 1.

   

A.1.1.5 Create tape

1. Right click on Tape types and click on Create tape.

   

2. Tape is now created with the name Tape 1. You can edit Thickness and Width by changing their values in Property window.

   

A.1.1.6 Create patch

1. Right click on Patch types and click on Create patch.

   

2. Artist Studio will a patch with the name Patch type 1.

3. In property window,

   • select Tape of the patch.

   • select Shape of the patch

   • edit Length of the patch.

   

A.1.1.7 Create laminate

The Patch laminate is the root element in the hierarchical structure i.e laminate -> stack -> layer -> sublayer -> chain -> patch.

To create a laminate, follow the following steps:

1. Create patch stack

   1. Right click on Laminate and then click on Create patch stack.

      

   2. Stack is created with the name Patch stack 1 and entities as shown:

      

2. Create patch layer

   1. Right click on Stack 1 and then click on Create patch layer.

      

   2. Layer is created with the name Patch layer 1.

3. Generating layup

Property window of the created layer (Layer 1) as shown below consists of various entities for generating layup.

Follow this step-by-step approach to generate layup in Patch Artist:

1. Click on the entity Surface and select a surface from the drop-down list where you want to generate Slave curves.

   

2. Click on the value of the next entity Curve extraction and select a Master curve from the drop-down list.

   

3. Click on the value of entity Patch type and select a patch type from the drop-down list which you have created previously.

   

4. Create Slave curves

   Click on the drop-down button to change the default parameters of Slave curves. Enter the values for Number of sublayers, Sublayer offset positions, Offset width and turn On or Off Trim edges at a turning point and then click on the Create button.

   

5. Modify curves

   Enter the appropriate values for the entities Maximum layer width, Minimum curve length, Intersection Tolerance. After this click outside property window or press Enter key to modify Slave curves.

   

   Slave curves are created as shown in the figure below:

   

6. Create patches

   Click on the drop-down button to make changes in the default settings. Here, Overlap/extensions is set to fixed, with extensions to cover the whole surface of the demonstrator with patches and which will also prevent gaps at the edges. Finally, click on the Create button to generate patches.

   

   Patches are generated as shown below:

   

5. Optimize layup

   Click on the Run button to optimize the layup. You can make changes here depending on the requirements and the quality required.

A.1.1.8 Check quality of patches

1. Select Plot from the group Quality review to view the quality of the layup generated.

   

Quality plot is generated for the layup:

2. To plot the quality of a particular sublayer, select that sublayer and uncheck the other sublayers.

   

   Colorplot is now plotted as follows:

   

3. Use Select, Select all or Deselect all from the Quality Review group to check the quality of a specific sublayer, chain or patch. The Select tool will act based on the chosen Picking type from that menu group.

A.1.2 Motion Artist

Click on the tab Motion Artist to simulate a manufacturing cell. Here are the steps to work with Motion Artist:

A.1.2.1 Select robot

1. Click on Machine data from Model explorer.

   

2. Select a robot from the Property window.

   

   The selected manufacturing cell will appear on the screen as shown below:

   

A.1.2.2 Create Machine data

1. Right click on Machine data and select Create machine data set.

   

2. A dialog will appear for creating the machine data.

   

3. After choosing the appropriate settings click on the Create data button

   

4. To make changes Right click on the created dataset and select Recreate machine data set.

   

5. Right click on dataset and click on the option - Optimization.

   

   And then click on Optimize movements.

A.1.2.3 Simulation

View simulation of the robot movements by playing Motion controller from Ribbon bar. You can visualize how positioner and picker axes are generating layups on the CAD model.