Laminate design and analysis software

[Parkerconv]

I'm new to the forum, responded to an old thread in another forum earlier but wanted to share what I think is a pretty good piece of free software that I learned about recently doing a consulting job for a client. I did some work recently for a company called Fiber Glass Industries and they have a free program they've developed for designers called Laminate Maker. Initially, once you download it, it appears in a rather small window but once you start adding layers and experimenting with laminate sequences it opens up and allows you to specify up to 12 layers in a sequence. They summarize basic laminate properties including material cost, weight, thickness, and in-plane elastic properties and three deflection calculation options are offered to compare bending stiffness. They also have videos for step-by-step how-to-use instruction. One of the nicest features I noted was the ability to estimate both resin and fiber costs. Different fabrics can have different costs, and the fiber content figures out how much resin is in the laminate. Compare hand layup versus infused laminates by changing the fiber content. It can be found at http://fiberglassindustries.com/LaminateMaker.html

[daiquiri]

ComposeIT by Bureau Veritas is a well-done, easy-to-use and freeware software for calculation of laminates' strength. It only requires a free registration to BV site before downloading:
http://www.veristar.com/wps/portal/!...ITPresentation

[DCockey]

Corrected url for the fiberglass industries software:
http://www.fiberglassindustries.com/LaminateMaker.html

[CGN]

http://www.thelaminator.net/