I can't seem to get the Assembly Feature/Weld Bead.... to work?

[StuCAD66]

Hi, my first post here, so I hope someone can help? I have an assembly made up of 4 parts. A machined Top, 2 machined end pieces and 1 U shaped fabricated part. the 2 ends butt weld to the top and the U shape completes the assembly with a bead weld all round the perimeter. I am trying to use the Weld Bead option in Solidworks and no matter what I try, it just won't do it. I select 'mating faces' and 'top faces', but when ever I click finish, I get 'selected faces from different components must share at least one coincident edge for this weld bead operation' I have mated the whole assembly up and tried different faces mating edges and not faces and it just won't work! I have never used the weld facility on SolidWorks before and even the tutorial is not helping me. I hope there is someone here who can guide me as to where I am going wrong. Attached jpg of the assembly (if it works). Thanks, Stu

 

[ctopher]

Do any of these help?
Do a search here for "weld".

thread559-160750

http://www.kxcad.net/solidworks/SolidWorks_59.html

thread559-203398

thread559-187660



Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 08
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion

 

[StuCAD66]

Hi Chris, thanks for your quick response I have seen the links above already, apart from the last one, which was quite helpful as it states the Weld Bead... app in SW is pretty useless, it is ok but takes a lot of fooling around to get it to work correctly and I would strongly agree with that statement I have done everything correctly as stated in the Help file (no tutorial for this btw, just weldments :roll: ), but still no joy, I get the same stupid error message! I am gonna persevere and try some different mate types etc. If I have any joy I will post here. If anyone has any tips for this, I would still be a great help to me. Thanks again for the help
Stu

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

StuCAD66,

Are you able to zip and post the files for testing?

 

[handleman]

Can you put your pieces into a part rather than an assembly? I think the weld bead feature is more flexible in a part context.

-handleman, CSWP (The new, easy test)

 

[RawheadRex]

StuCAD66,

Sometimes it takes a lot of fussing to get that type of feature to work (a common complaint in my experience). For what it is worth, in the past I have just gone ahead and modelled the beads from scratch and then mated them into my assembly.

ChrisG

 

[Noxitec]

Just model the bead as an internal part.

I made a material "weld 1", "weld 2" , ... All with appearance black and custom properties.

Sometimes we weld assemblys with different and special alloys and so you can even put them in a table to.

Noxi
SW2008SP4

 

[StuCAD66]

Well thank you all for the comments, sadly I ran out of time on this and just added in the symobls on the drawing. What ever I tried it just did not work and for the time it would have taken me to model the beads, I feel it would just not have been viable. I will endeavor to contact SolidWorks and ask if its possible to improve the bead command in future revisions as tbh I think it sucks lol! Thanks again anyway folks

I have attached the assembly in a zip file if any one fancies the challenge (SW2008)

Stu

 

[ctopher]

Adding the symbols to the drawing is the most efficient way to show welds. I never add welds to the models unless it is needed for FEA.

Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 08
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion