Chapter 36: Creating Weldments and Weldment Drawings
IN THIS CHAPTER
Using 3D sketching techniques
Creating weldment-specific features
Adding non-structural components
Creating sub-weldments
Understanding cut lists
Placing the weldment cut list on a drawing
Weldments in SolidWorks are built on structural profiles along sketch entities in a multi-body part environment. Weldment members can be straight or curved, you can make them using standard or custom profiles, and you can build them from both 2D and 3D sketches. A cut list within the part keeps track of the length of each profile that is needed to fabricate the weldment.
Weldments are specialized parts that are similar in some ways to sheet metal parts: They are identified as a special kind of part by a Weldment feature in the FeatureManager, and you use a special set of tools to create and edit them. The specialized part enables specialized functionality such as cut lists, special body trimming functions, and gap creation between bodies.
You can use weldments for round or rectangular tubular structures, structures made from channels, flanged sections, standard or custom shapes, gussets, and end caps, and they can also represent weld beads in the part. You can also use weldments to create structures that are bolted together, structural aluminum extrusion frames, vinyl window frames, and wooden frames and structures, and you can put them into assemblies with other parts such as castings, sheet metal, and fabricated plates. ...
