Laminate Browser

The Laminate Browser provides a vertical tree view of the materials, laminates, and HLS loadcases in your model.

For the OptiStruct and Nastran user profiles the browser also includes size design variables.

The Laminate browser is located on the left side of the HyperLaminate window.

On launching HyperLaminate, the Laminate Browser is populated with all the relevant materials, laminate definitions, HLS loadcases, and size design variables existing in the HyperMesh database, for the active user profile. The data is presented in a slightly different format for the various user profiles.


Figure 1. OptiStruct & Nastran


Figure 2. ANSYS
Figure 3. Abaqus
The Laminate Browser is organized in a three-level hierarchy.
  1. At the highest level are the entity types: Materials, Laminates, HLS loadcases, and Design Variables.
  2. At the intermediate level are the entity sub-types or card images. These are:
    • for OptiStruct and Nastran:
      • Materials: MAT1, MAT2 and MAT8
      • Laminates: PCOMP and PCOMPG
      • HLS loadcases: In-plane loads and In-plane strains
      • Design variables: DESVAR
    • for ANSYS:
      • Materials: MATERIAL and MPDATA
      • Laminates: SHELL91, SHELL99, SOLID46 and SOLID 191
      • HLS loadcases: In-plane loads and In-plane strains
    • for Abaqus:
      • Materials: ABAQUS_MATERIAL
      • Laminates: SOLIDSECTION, SHELLSECTION and SHELLGENERALSECTION
      • HLS loadcases: In-plane loads and In-plane strains
  3. At the lowest level are the entities, displayed with the names as defined by you.

Left- or right-clicking on a branch in the browser selects that branch and it becomes highlighted. When an entity (lowest level branch in the tree hierarchy) is selected, the Define/Edit and Review/Results panes are populated with details related to that entity. It is then possible to alter and update the entity definition.

Right-clicking on an already selected (highlighted) branch offers context-sensitive operations for that branch.
  • At the highest level (entity types) no operations are available.
  • At the intermediate level (entity sub-types) only one operation is available: New, which will create a new entity of the selected sub-type. For example, if MAT1 is selected and you right-click it and choose New; a new MAT1 entity is created.
  • At the lowest level (entities) three operations are available; Rename, which allows the entity to be renamed; Duplicate, which creates a copy of the selected entity; and Delete, which will delete the selected entity.
  • For Laminates a fourth operation is available: to export HLS results for the selected laminate to a file.

Create Entities

Methods to create new entities in HyperLaminate.

  • In the browser, right-click on an intermediate level branch (an entity sub-type or card image) and select New from the context menu.
  • Select an intermediate level branch (an entity sub-type or card image) from the browser tree, then select New from the File menu.
  • Select an intermediate level branch (an entity sub-type or card image), then click (New) on the toolbar.

A new entity appears under the selected branch.

A default name and ID are assigned to each newly created entity.

Review and Update Entities

  1. In the Laminate browser tree, right-or left-click an entity (lowest level in tree hierarchy).
    The selected entity is highlighted.

    The Define/Edit and Review/Results panes are populated with details of that entity.

  2. In the Define/Edit pane, make the desired changes to the entity definition.
  3. Click Apply or Update Laminate to update the entity.

Rename Entities

  1. In the Laminate Browser tree, right-click an entity (lowest level in tree hierarchy), and select Rename from the context menu.
    The name of the selected entity in the Laminate Browser switches to a text box.
  2. Enter the desired new name in the text box.

    You can also rename an entity by altering the relevant field in the Define/Edit pane and then clicking Apply or Update Laminate.

Duplicate Entities

In the Laminate Browser tree, right-click an entity (lowest level in tree hierarchy), and select Duplicate from the context menu.
A duplicate of the entity is created and appears in the Laminate Browser.

Delete Entities

  1. Delete entity.
    • In the Laminate Browser tree, right-click an entity (lowest level in tree hierarchy), and select Delete from the context menu.
    • In the Laminate Browser tree, left-click an entity (lowest level in tree hierarchy), and select Delete from the Edit menu.
    • In the Laminate Browser tree, left-click an entity (lowest level in tree hierarchy), and click (Delete) from the toolbar.
  2. In the confirmation dialog, click Yes.
The entity is deleted and disappears from the Laminate Browser.
Note: Abaqus materials that are created but not defined (they appear in a red font in Laminate Browser) may not be deleted, as they do not really exist. To delete these undefined materials, either complete their definition (by clicking Edit – which takes you to the HyperMesh material card previewer) or exit and restart HyperLaminate, in which case the undefined materials are purged.