weldment tutorial

[jerry1423]

I am currently working in the 2008 tutorial, with weldments.

I really like the weldment part of SolidWorks, but I am having a problem selecting the corner of the frame so I can change the corner treatment from butt to mitered.

Are there any tricks (such as filtering) to selecting the corner so that I can change the corner treatment?

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Filtering should not be necessary. Do the corners not show a purple spot when creating or editting the Weldment? The purple spot should be the only selectable element when it is showing.

 

[jerry1423]

I do not see a purple spot. Should something be toggled on?

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

I don't know of a toggle option for that. What graphics card are you using? Sometimes unsuitable cards will not display some elements correctly.

 

[danbaile]

I love and hate weldments. I have the following tips and shortfalls for you:

1. Not all weldment profiles have points to select. To check, try editing the weldment profile and check that ther are enough points. e.g an RSA angle does not have a point in the middle, adding one helps.

2. On the corner of a frame, try a trim/extend within the Weldment Tab. This allows you to pick structural members and apply corner treatment.

3. For the above, it can only be trimmed once. Solidworks 2008 has trouble doing it multiple times.

4. Keep the weldment frame small(ish). Build up assemblies for large weldment structures - I have complained like mad to my Solidworks provider about the speed of my weldment file - 2008 didn't allocate enough resource for the function, but is considerably faster in 2009.

5. Make your own weldment profiles. I have made them for common steel profiles such as PFC, made them for handrail tubing, flatbar etc.

6. Download more than the standard library, when you start using it, you will want to use it more.

7. Check out a few of my weldment platforms on my website:

http://www.seseng.co.uk

I hope this helps.

Dan