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Weldments & Plates

Weldments & Plates

Weldments & Plates

(OP)
Been using solidworks for a couple of months now and I am absolutely loving the weldment features.  The only problem I have is when I am adding plates on top of my skids.  Right now I basically make a box extruding it the thickness of my plate and making the appropiate cut outs.
Then I have to go into the cut list and fill in all of the information and link it to the dimensions I put in.  I am looking for an idea that where I could do the following

Make my box, extrude it or select a thickness.
Have it automatically populate the cutlist properties with
the description I need, link it to the thickness (extrude) variable and the shortest of the length and width.  Then populate the length propert with the longest length.
And automatically assign the material to A36.

Could i do this with a weldment profile, or do I need an API and some programming to do this.  I can't seem to think it through using a weldment profile and I don't quite have enough experience to pull it off with an API yet.

Any suggestions.

Cadnutcase
SW 2006.

Thanks in advance


RE: Weldments & Plates

One way would be to create a custom weld profile with the information you need for the cut list in it.

RE: Weldments & Plates

Look at the current weldment profiles (they are library features) to get a feel for how they work.  They include custom properties linked to dimensions which populate the cut list.

The profiles would need to be a cross-section of the stock, and you will need seperate profiles for each cross-section.  The weldment feature will end up determining the cut length.

The easiest thing to do is copy and existing profile and edit the sketch and properties accordingly.  Make sure they are in a folder that the File Locations for weldment profiles point to.

RE: Weldments & Plates

I went down this path with a client & we decided that there's no practical way to determine the exact plate profiles we'd need. They seem to be "too custom" every time. So we just bite the bullet & create them on the fly. Maybe the situation is different for you.


Windows 2000 Professional / Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer
SolidWorks 2006 SP02.0 / SpaceBall 4000 FLX
Diet Coke with Lime / Dark Chocolate
Lava Lamp
www.Tate3d.com

RE: Weldments & Plates

(OP)
TateJ,

Know I think the situation is going to be the same.  I think the problem stems from only one dimension being known at the time.  Every plate is a different width and length everytime.  Most of the time they aren't tied in to lengths and widths anyways.

I was hoping there would be a macro floating out there in cyberspace to do determine the envelope dimensions and link the values accoringly.  Oh well.

RE: Weldments & Plates

You know you don't necessarily have to "type" in the dimensions. You can click on them & get them in there just like with a design table... removes some of the tedium.


Windows 2000 Professional / Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer
SolidWorks 2006 SP02.0 / SpaceBall 4000 FLX
Diet Coke with Lime / Dark Chocolate
Lava Lamp
www.Tate3d.com

RE: Weldments & Plates

(OP)
Yeah I know this is the way I am doing it.
It is just sometimes I might have 15-20 plates per skid.

Just looking for thoughts on an easier way.

RE: Weldments & Plates

I asked a similar question back a while ago and came up with some answers that may be of interest (although they are not done within weldments). Have a look at thread559-13995 (not sure how to link to it!).

RE: Weldments & Plates

Sorry, Typed in the thread incorrectly. Try this one instead. thread559-139995.

RE: Weldments & Plates

Don't think that was the right thread... didn't see you anywhere in it.


Windows 2000 Professional / Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer
SolidWorks 2006 SP02.0 / SpaceBall 4000 FLX
Diet Coke with Lime / Dark Chocolate
Lava Lamp
www.Tate3d.com

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