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Vuuch Client 4:42 am on July 17, 2009 Log in to leave a Comment  

Weldment

Public discussion by Chris Williams, posted courtesy of Vuuch.

I was at a local user group meeting last night and someone demonstrated the weldment capability in SW. I wanted to know if this really works as well as it looked in the demo?

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  Vuuch Client 8:14 am on July 17, 2009 Permalink

  Comment by Public Discussions, posted courtesy of Vuuch.

  It really is very useful. My team has been using it to develop early conceptual designs and to support building models for FEA. Because the weldment is a single part, you are not committed to a particular product structure too early in the concept phase. Some PDM systems will even support the use of the ‘cut list’ as a BOM so in many cases the ‘weldment’ can be used through the entire process and not just the concept phase. Good stuff.

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  Vuuch Client 8:18 am on July 17, 2009 Permalink

  Comment by Chris Williams, posted courtesy of Vuuch.

  Thanks for the feedback.. I will give it a try. Working on a motorcycle frame…

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  Chris Serran 8:43 am on July 17, 2009 Permalink

  I didn’t see the demo so I can’t comment if it works as well as in the demo.
  However.
  I use weldments quite often and I’d have to say its worth it to learn and use.
  It may take a bit of initial setup with profiles (flat bar stock), but you can download many of the common structural steel profiles.

  The auto-generation of cut lists is another timesaver with weldments when creating drawings.

  It also depends on the type of weldments you are designing. I’ve heard of some people where, due to their manufacturing process, it’s easier to use assemblies rather than weldments.

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  CBL 8:45 am on July 17, 2009 Permalink

  The Weldment capability is good for many applications, some of them don’t even involve welds (Wood framing for example), but it’s hard to answer your question without knowing the contents of the demo you saw.

  Do you have a link to the demo?

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  dave spencer 10:34 am on July 17, 2009 Permalink

  Ben has a great tutorial on weldments here.
  http://solidmentor.com/modules/mastop_publish/?tac=Wooden_Frames

  and here
  http://solidmentor.com/modules/mastop_publish/print.php?tac=Springs_Drawings_and_Weldments

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  ivanl 10:58 am on July 17, 2009 Permalink

  I agree with previous comments. There are many good uses for weldments, I use them a lot. Think of all the custom profiles you could create too… even sheet metal profiles, provided you don’t need to flatten it out though.