WingHopper · Designer · Guide · Sections · Reef · Methods · Pricing · FAQ

Plies: the laminate schedule

The Plies tab (Build group) defines the composite skin row by row: material, fibre orientation, and how many plies. One schedule describes one side; both skins get the same stack. It exports as DXF cut files, one layer per row and side, plus a cut list and a printable 1:1 pattern.

Editing the schedule

• Material and orientation per row. 0/90 plies carry spanwise bending. ±45 plies are the torsion plies; the bending check credits them at 30% axially.
• − / + sets the ply count in a row.
• Auto-size sizes the plies to this wing's bending load at 90% of the allowable.
• The colored dot toggles the row in the 3D view. Row colors match across the list, the 3D laminate view and the 2D layout.

Every row runs the full span by default. A row that ends early (a ply drop) shows its end station under it, with a link to run it back to the tip.

The checks

• Bending: skin bending stress as a share of the allowable, at the worst station along the span.
• Buckling: how close the compression skin is to wrinkling into the core.
• Divergence: riding speed as a share of the speed at which the wing twists itself apart in torsion.

Over 100% is a fail. The full model, including load cases, lives in Analysis > Structure; see Structure.

The 2D ply layout

Open 2D ply layout shows every ply true size, in place over a dashed outline of the whole skin, for the upper or lower side. A ply that stops short of the skin is really short in the cut file.

On the roll shows the pieces nested on your cloth. Fibre 0° runs along the roll; 0/90 rows lie on the fibre, ±45 rows are turned 45°. Pieces interlock and may be mirrored, which a balanced weave allows.

• Roll width: the cloth you actually have.
• Trim / gap: handling margin around each piece, and the clearance the nester leaves between pieces. Both are cut into the DXF.
• Cloth cost: your price per metre of roll. Costed off the cloth you must buy, not the area that ends up in the part; at typical nest utilisation those differ by more than 2×.

Wingtip: solid or wrapped

How the skin meets the rolled tip. It changes the part, not just the drawing.

• Solid: the patterns stop where the cloth stops laying flat and the tip past that is filled solid; no cloth, no darts.
• Wrapped: the cloth carries over the roll on a faired band, with dart wedges marked for you to cut and close on the mould.

In solid mode the inner plies step back one at a time as the tip section thins, innermost first, and the surface ply runs on until the tip cannot hold even one ply per skin. Drop from the inside, keep the mould-side ply continuous over the drops. Lay the surface ply into the mould first, shorter plies after.

Drape

Woven cloth shears comfortably to about 15° and locks up around 30-40°. The Details section reports the typical in-plane shear this wing asks for, and how far the flat pattern edges sit from the surface (how far it is from developable). Above about 15°, cut the panels on the bias; past about 30°, dart or split the ply where it bites.

Explode stack

Fans the plies apart in the 3D view along the surface normal so the stack order reads. 0 is the layup position.

Next: Mold tooling