Methods for generating a flat pattern for a composite ply. A method includes receiving a tool model and a ply coverage, wherein the ply coverage defines a plurality of plies, a fiber orientation for each of the plies, and a boundary for each of the plies, determining one or more subset regions on the tool model based on the boundaries from the ply coverage, creating a merged ply combining the plies and aligning the fiber orientations, defining staging instances of the merged ply for each ply covering a subset region, determining a laydown order of the staging instances, running a draping simulation using the laydown order to solve the staging instances, generating a flat pattern from the draping simulation, and storing the flat pattern of the composite ply.