I'm pulling what little bit of hair I have left out!  What's the trick with setting up an orthotropic material in a simulation for a composite shell?

The feature is *very* inconsistent.  Sometimes it asks for reference geometry, sometimes not.  It seems to switch back and forth between orthotropic and isotropic at will.  Sometimes it makes new custom materials folders for me- and these don't seem to work either.

Basically it's a possessed feature and makes no sense whatsoever.

Can someone give me a recipe to make it behave in a predicable manner?