Can someone please help get me pointed in the right direction?

Get rid of all Tk stuff, and define your problem in terms of subs and data structures :)

Add this to the end of sub input_lam_data

    use Tk::ObjScanner;
    use Tk::WidgetDump;
    Tk::ObjScanner::scan_object( 
        {
            q{\%ort_optmen} => \%ort_optmen ,
            q{\%t_optmen} => \%t_optmen ,
            q{\%ply_lab} => \%ply_lab ,
            q{\%mat_optmen} => \%mat_optmen ,
        }
    );
    $mw->WidgetDump;
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Its diagnostical, see Tk::ObjScanner and Tk::WidgetDump

I don't have ObjScanner.pm.

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying?... Let's say I have the following

my $n = 4;
my $mat1 = "PW";
my $t1 = "0.0077";
my $ort1 = "45";
my $mat2 = "PW";
my $t2 = "0.0077";
my $ort2 = "45";
my $mat3 = "8HS";
my $t3 = "0.0147";
my $ort3 = "0";
my $mat4 = "PW";
my $t4 = "0.0077";
my $ort4 = "0";
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Now I want to sort it as described in the original post. How do I do this efficiently? My first thought would be to write several if statements but I imagine there must be a better way to go about this. Thanks for the help.

See Do the Schwartzian boogy! for how to sort AoA's. Arrays of Arrays.

---

I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth.
Old Perl Programmer Haiku ................... flash japh

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying?... Let's say I have the following

Um, that is not an array, or three arrays, you can't sort that. I too am completely unsure of what you're asking about. Does this help?

#!/usr/bin/perl --
use strict; use warnings;
use Data::Dump;
Main( @ARGV );
exit( 0 );
sub Main {
    my @choice = Ply( 0, 0, 0 );
    dd\@choice;
    push @choice, Ply( 1, 1, 1 );
    push @choice, Ply( 2, 2, 3 );
    dd\@choice;
    print "Combinations ", int( @choice ),"\n";
    print "Materials ", CountMaterials( \@choice ),"\n";
}

sub CountMaterials {
    my( $co ) = @_;
    my %seen;
    for my $item ( @$co ){
        my $mat = $item->[0];
        $seen{ $mat }++;
    }
    return scalar keys %seen;
}
BEGIN {
    my @Thickness = ( "0.0077","0.0147","0.0054");
    my @Material =  ( "PW","8HS","Tape");
    my @Orientation = ("-45","0","45","90");
    sub Ply {
        my( $mat, $thi, $ori ) = @_;
        return [
            $Material[ $mat ],
            $Thickness[ $thi ],
            $Orientation[ $ori ],
        ];
    }
}
__END__
[["PW", 0.0077, -45]]
[["PW", 0.0077, -45], ["8HS", 0.0147, 0], ["Tape", 0.0054, 90]]
Combinations 3
Materials 3
[download]

All you have to do is write a function to query the target option menu and return an array like CountMaterials expects

Furthermore you did not use strict and use warnings as I mentioned to you before in Re^3: Optionmenu Variable in Name. This programming negligence of yours causes us to have to track down all sorts of bugs in your code. Same thing again here. If you add strict and warnings, you get

Global symbol "%mat_lab" requires explicit package name at ./959204.pl
+ line 41.
Global symbol "%mat_lab" requires explicit package name at ./959204.pl
+ line 43.
Global symbol "%mat" requires explicit package name at ./959204.pl lin
+e 66.
Global symbol "%t" requires explicit package name at ./959204.pl line 
+80.
Global symbol "%ort" requires explicit package name at ./959204.pl lin
+e 94.
Execution of ./959204.pl aborted due to compilation errors.
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A fixed version of your code shows how to get that sub to print your values.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use Tk;
use Cwd;

######################################################################
+#####################
# GUI Building 
######################################################################
+#####################

# make the selections available to the print_input_values sub
my %t;
my %mat;
my %ort;
my %mat_lab;


# Create Main Window
my $mw = new MainWindow;
my $lam_num;
my $row=1;
my $column=1;
my $lam_mat_frm = $mw -> Frame();
$lam_mat_frm->grid(-row=>$row, -column=>$column,-columnspan=>6);
my $lam_num_lab = $lam_mat_frm -> Label(-text=>"Input the number of pl
+ies in the laminate.",
    -font=>"ansi 10 bold");
$lam_num_lab->grid(-row=>$row, -column=>$column);
$column++;
my $lam_num_ent = $lam_mat_frm -> Entry(-textvariable=> \$lam_num);
$lam_num_ent->grid(-row=>$row, -column=>$column);
$column++;
my $lam_data_button = $lam_mat_frm->Button(-text=>"Input Laminate Data
+",
    -command=> \&input_lam_data);
$lam_data_button->grid(-row=>$row, -column=>$column);

MainLoop;

sub input_lam_data {
    $row=4;
    $column=2;
    my @lam_mat_t_lab = (
    'Material',
    'Thickness',
    'Orientation',
    );
    my $n = 1;
    for my $label (@lam_mat_t_lab) {
        $mat_lab{$n} = $lam_mat_frm -> Label (-text=> $label,
        -font=>"ansi 8 bold");
        $mat_lab{$n}->grid(-row=>$row, -column=>$column);
        $column=$column+1;
    };
    my %ply_lab;
    $n = 1;
    $row=5;
    do {
        $column = 1;
        $ply_lab{$n} = $lam_mat_frm -> Label (-text=>"Ply $n",
        -font=>"ansi 8 bold");
        $ply_lab{$n}->grid(-row=>$row,-column=>$column);
        $row = $row+1;
        $n = $n+1;
    } until ($n == $lam_num+1);

    # Create Material Optionmenus
    my @mats = ("PW","8HS","Tape");
    my %mat_optmen;
    $n = 1;
    $row=5;
    $column=2;
    do {
        $mat_optmen{$n} = $lam_mat_frm -> Optionmenu(-options => \@mat
+s,
        -variable => \$mat{$n});
        $mat_optmen{$n}->grid(-row=>$row,-column=>$column);
        $row=$row+1;
        $n = $n + 1;
    } until ($n == $lam_num+1);
    
    # Create Thickness Optionmenus
    my @ts = ("0.0077","0.0147","0.0054");
    my %t_optmen;
    $n = 1;
    $row=5;
    $column=3;
    do {
        $t_optmen{$n} = $lam_mat_frm -> Optionmenu(-options => \@ts,
        -variable => \$t{$n});
        $t_optmen{$n}->grid(-row=>$row,-column=>$column);
        $row=$row+1;
        $n = $n + 1;
    } until ($n == $lam_num+1);

    # Create Orientation Optionmenus
    my @orts = ("-45","0","45","90");
    my %ort_optmen;
    $n = 1;
    $row=5;
    $column=4;
    do {
        $ort_optmen{$n} = $lam_mat_frm -> Optionmenu(-options => \@ort
+s,
        -variable => \$ort{$n});
        $ort_optmen{$n}->grid(-row=>$row,-column=>$column);
        $row=$row+1;
        $n = $n + 1;
    } until ($n == $lam_num+1);
    my $print_button = $lam_mat_frm->Button(-text=>"Print BJSFM Input 
+File",
    -command=> \&print_input_file);
    $print_button->grid(-row=>$row,-column=>1);
}

sub print_input_file {
 print "$lam_num\n";

 my @values;

foreach my $n (1.. ($lam_num) ){
    push @values, $mat{$n};
    push @values, $t{$n};
    push @values, $ort{$n};
    
   }

print  join ",", @values,"\n";
}
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