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Getting Started with Compas

Introduction

Compas is a composites material design and analysis system.
The basic purpose of the system is to enable engineers and designers to answer the basic questions
How much will it weigh ?
What will it's stiffness and strength be ?
How much will it cost ?

In Compas you design materials for projects, you can keep track of changes by adding and copying revisions when your requirements or design changes.
A project consists of Laminates which are your basic design target and which represent a particular material component of your project. Laminates are designed by dragging and dropping materials listed in the right hand pane onto the laminate you are designing in the left hand pane.

Quickstart

To get started from scratch click on the 'Project' menu item :-

Adding a project

Enter the details for your project :-

You will automatically have a Revision 1 added to your project :-
Now right click the Revision entry on the left hand pane and in the context menu displayed click 'Add laminate'.

Add a laminate

For the laminate you must specify a name , the size of the laminate panel and select the resin process type you will be building the laminate with from the dropdown list. You can also enter your estimate for material wastages or accept the default values.

Adding a laminate dialog

Click on OK.

To design the laminate select a material in the right hand pane by clicking on it, and drag it by holding down the left mouse button to the laminate on the left hand pane. When your mouse cursor is on the selected laminate release the mouse button. You will now be asked for the required thickness and placement angle for the material.

You can now continue to add further materials by dragging and dropping them onto the laminate where they will be inserted after the material you point to and drop on in the laminate or as the first material in the laminate if you drop the new material directly on a laminate.

To get figures for weight, cost and strength , select the laminate you want figures for and click on one of the tabs for Laminate stats, Cost or Properties.