Edit ply thickness with script

[DJStatics]

Hi there

I am trying to write a script to change the thickness of specific plies in predefined composite lay-ups. It seems that the only way to edit the thickness of a ply is to redefine it. The problem is that I need the 'region' as an argument for the CompositePly() object. I do not know how to access the region of an already existing ply.

When I record the action in the GUI using Macro Manager, getSequenceFromMask() is used to select faces for the region. But I do not want to use the GUI to re-select faces as this will take too much time.

So far I am able to access the thickness and material of the ply using the following:

thickness = mdb.models['Model-1'].parts['Part-1'].compositeLayups['Comp'].plies[0].thickness
material = mdb.models['Model-1'].parts['Part-1'].compositeLayups['Comp'].plies[0].material

Is it possible to access the pre-selected region for my new ply definition, or is there another way of editing only the thickness of a ply in a composite lay-up?

 

[FEA way]

You can use compositeLayups.plies.region if that’s what you mean. Check the Region object in Abaqus Scripting Reference Guide.

After exporting to keywords, the composite layup definitions look like this for example:

*Shell section, elset=region_1, composite, layup=layup_name
thickness, number_of_integration_points, material_name, orientation_angle, ply_name

Depending on your goal, maybe you could access the definitions from there.