Tube chassis design?

[jadog]

I am currently trying to build a tube chassis truck. I was wondering what was the easiest approach. I need to be able to also show the notches in the tube where they meet. I looked at routing and Im not sure that is the answer. Plus there were limited instructions on using it. But standard 3d sketch seems to lack the ability to notch material where the tubes intersect.

 

[rockguy]

Look at weldment functionality.

Rob Rodriguez CSWP
President: Northern
Vermont SolidWorks User Group

http://www.robrodriguez.com

(updated 3/24/06)
SW 2006 SP 4.0 EV

 

[drawoh]

jadog,

I set up a part model of a steel tube section with configurations for each length. This allowed me to do a cutting list on the weldment drawing. Any trimming and cutting to precise lengths I modeled at the assembly level.

I wound up with a weldment drawing showing the external dimensions, leaving it to the welder to figure out the final cuts need to fit the pieces.

How do you want to communicate with your welder? Anything I do in SolidWorks is massively affected by how I intend to manage my documentation.

JHG

 

[jadog]

Rockguy,
Ok well you both helped tremendously The triming and stuff though the weldment tools that works great.

drawoh,
I intend on all these tubes being bent on a CNC bender and I was hopfull that I could get this acurate enough to pre notch the tubes. Im not real familiar with the large scale production practices as far as bending and notching. If they can notch before they bend and with proper fixturing get an acuate part or is it more effective to bend the part first, And notch after. Its just a pain to try to deal with a big ol bent tube from my own experiences.

Another question can I flat pattern these bent tubes? to get blank lengthes, weight, etc..

Thanks again guys

 

[drawoh]

jadog,

On my weldment, all the tubes were straight. This removed a lot of complexity. You should consider this point.

CNC tube benders are not a SolidWorks question. You need to talk to your fabricator and find out what order these operations should be done in. Modeling tube cuts before you bend could be a challenge in SolidWorks.

Once again, you need to ask yourself what information must be on your fabrication drawing, and how should it be organized. Once you talk to your fabricator and your inspectors and figure this out, your SolidWorks procedure should be obvious.

What kind of structural analysis are you doing on this thing? This could be another modeling issue.

JHG

 

[jadog]

Lol, ya you led me straight to my next question. I did want to to some sort of stress analysis. Im sure the design we have is strong enough it has been manualy built and tested. But I would like to know where I am over kill and to what degree. I wanted to use cosmos. Im not sure it will do some torsional loads to the chassis. I feel that will be the most detrimental load. What are your thoughts and sugestions on this? Ya and as far as modeling tube cuts first that was a misunderstanding. The tube cuts will made after the tube is modeled using the weldment trim extend tool. It work perfectly for that.
Thanks Again,
Jason