Caution: I may not use proper terms, I am new to Abaqus or even FEM in general.

What I am trying to do is, to make a 5-ply wood panel, throw an object (shell type), then measure the stress on each plies, then change the thickness and materials, then run the test again to compare the results. As an example, the dimension of the plywood is 15 x 15 x 5 cm, with 5 plies, and the thickness and materials varies on each layers. Where I got stuck is, I can't figure out how to make a layered composite (or laminate). I tried searching by these keywords: layered composite, laminate, plywood, sandwich panel, etc. but nothing came up. I mean, there are a few tutorials on YouTube, but nothing actually helped.

I tried...

1. Make 5 solids and stack them up (not sure how to glue them), but the problem is, the job is extremely slow, and I can't have enough (meaningful) meshes, because of the student version limitations.
2. Make a "Shell Planer" and use "Layup", but the ball just goes through the plane (ball deforms, plane doesn't). Btw, think I got all the material properties and units right, but perhaps not?
3. Make a "Solid" (5cm), then partition them, then use "Layup", but when I submit the job, an error message pops up, which says "...elements have missing property definitions. The elements have been identified in element set ErrElemMissingSection." but when I do assign a material, that it's only one material (which defeats the purpose).

P.S. I am not sure if I can use "Layup" for "Solid" shapes. I am assuming it only works with "Shells" (not sure though). I also tried various random options (mostly in part and property section), just to see if things would work accidentally. I now... please don't judge me.

Anyway, what would be the proper approach?

Abaqus