The shape (area) of an FEA ply is defined by selecting elements that most closely
represent the complex shape of a physical ply. Typically, if an element's centroid
exists within the bounds of the physical ply shape, that element is considered part
of the FEA ply shape. The corresponding FEA ply shape is defined by the gray shaded
elements of the associated FEA mesh.
In the figure below, an elliptical physical ply shape is defined by the brown
line. Figure 1.
