Evaluating all possible combinations

I am working on designing a composite part. The two main variables are the number of layers i can stack and the orientation of each layer (0,45,90 deg.). In the below image, we can see different layers stacked with different orientations

I am trying to find all possible sequences that can be made, but im not sure how to go about that. For example, if i have 5 layers, how would i determine all the possible sequences?

I've tried perms and nchoosek - don't seem to work, but im not sure why.

Thanks

[Torsten]

So for each layer you have 4 possible orientations. Thus if you have N layers, the number of possible arrangements is 4^N. Is this a correct interpretation of what you try to achieve ?

[Michael Jacobson]

Yes, i believe that's the proper understanding.

Answer 1

[Karim]

See below for one method to obtain all combinations.

In the resulting matrix, each row represents a combination, the first column holds the angle for the first layers, the second for the second etc.

Hope it helps ;)

% define the angle options for a layer
LayerOptions = [0 -45 45 90];

% define number of layers
NumLayer = 5;

% create place holder for the layers
CellCombo = cell(1,NumLayer);

% assign the options for each layer
CellCombo(:) = {LayerOptions};

% extend the data to obtain the combinations
Combinations = CellCombo;
[Combinations{:}] = ndgrid(CellCombo{:});
Combinations = cell2mat(cellfun(@(m)m(:),Combinations,'uni',0));

% print the result
Combinations

Combinations = 1024×5

0 0 0 0 0 -45 0 0 0 0 45 0 0 0 0 90 0 0 0 0 0 -45 0 0 0 -45 -45 0 0 0 45 -45 0 0 0 90 -45 0 0 0 0 45 0 0 0 -45 45 0 0 0

[Michael Jacobson]

This helps a lot, thanks! It does exactly what I was looking for.

I do appreciate your help!