SolidWorks for structural steel work??

prooney · Feb 8, 2008

We are a job shop who does a lot of different stuff and I was wondering if anyone has experience using SolidWorks for heavy structural steel projects like ladders, platforms, handrails and the such.

I have a seat of SW08 and would like to implement it company wide but need to make sure it will fit our needs for everything that we do. Any input whatsoever is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

JMirisola · Feb 8, 2008

Oh, it will definitely work. Not only can you create everything you mentioned, but you can run FEA on them as well. Your best bet, IMO, is to go to

http://solidworks.com/pages/successes/success_stories.html

and take a look at everything that is created in SolidWorks. If Bucyrus can create the machine shown here, I'm sure that your ladders will be easy.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
Certified DriveWorks AE

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

Dell M90, Core2 Duo
4GB RAM
Nvidia 3500M

prooney · Feb 8, 2008

Jeff,

Do you know if it can create the bolted connections that would be required for structural steel fabrication. We have a program that runs inside of AutoCad that has all clip and bolted connection drawings. Or is this something that you may have to do a little leg work on to get it started?

JMirisola · Feb 8, 2008

If you're talking nuts and bolts, look at the whole wizard and smart fasteners. There's also weldment functionality. I'd suggest going through the help files and tutorials. You'll find a slew of info there.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
Certified DriveWorks AE

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

Dell M90, Core2 Duo
4GB RAM
Nvidia 3500M

prooney · Feb 8, 2008

Thanks Jeff.

tygerdawg · Feb 8, 2008

I've used SW extensively for structural jobs in factories: man-ladders & workplatforms, monorail cranes & support structure, machine frames and that sort of stuff. Never any skyscaper structures, but I suppose that could be done, too.

If you don't know it yet, SW has a library of all the standard steel shapes. It also has a built-in beam load/deflection calculator. It's simple to create cut-lists and weldment detail support.

Bolted designs...you can easily add holes and fastener hardware. But I don't think there is any built-in functionality for determining composite stresses on bolted connections. There may be a 3rd-Party Add-On for that, but don't know. At some point, you still need the engineering training to do the calculations.

TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Advanced Robotics & Automation Engineering

http://www.bluetechnik.com