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Weldments

I'm having trouble with something seemingly simple. I have a 1/2" x 4-1/4" x

5-1/2" horizontal plate. On top of that plate is a 3/4" x 5" x 2-1/4" plate that is welded perpendicular to the horiz. plate. The trouble comes in when I try to weld a 2-1/2" dia. x 2-5/8" long piece of bar stock centered on 3/4" thick vertical member. I get a message that selected faces are invalid for fillet weld. I'm selecting one side of the vertical member and the O.D. face of the bar stock. Any suggestions on the right way to do this?

Thanks in Advance, Mike

Reply to
grphxman1
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yeah don't 3D model your welds.... for years welds have been notes in drawings & should stay that way in my opinion. If you need to show the weld in the drawing use the "caterpillar" command AND/OR the "weld triangle" (not sure of that name) command to represent the weld.

If you have to 3D model the weld for some kind of FEA then just model the weld yourself using extrude, cut, & revolve; as if you were designing a part, when the fillet weld bead does not work -- it wont work for many situations with geometry that is not two flat 90deg faces.

Hope that helps Steve T.

Reply to
Steve Tietz

The "weld triangle" I referred to previously is actually called "End Treatment" you will find them under the Insert --> Annotations from the pulldowns

Steve t.

Reply to
Steve Tietz

Thanks Steve! I don't see much point in modeling the welds either. It just clutters up the drawing.

Mike

Reply to
grphxman1

I've generally never shown 3D welds because:- a) Previous CAD systems haven't had this functionality b) It's still flaky in SWX. c) More surfaces = slower performance

However, there are good reasons for doing so:-

1) You get visual feedback if a subsequent machining op removes most of the weld. 2) You can see where mating components foul on the weld bead. 3) You might only need to produce a drawing weeks after you've modelled the part, by which time you have to start from scratch on deciding what welds to use. 4) If you are "gap welding" it looks weird if no weld is shown.

One day the software will work as expected, and the hardware will cope with a massive assembly full of welded parts - then we'll all show 3D welds. It's a bit like going back 10 or more years, to when we never showed any fasteners because they were slow to add and made the machine grind to a halt.

Regards, John H

Reply to
John H

flat surfaces only. it's a current limitation. you could extrude them manually (do not merge so that multi-body remains intact).

Reply to
kb

I think an isometric view with the caterpillar annotation will suffice. My little bit of experience with weldments has shown me that there are more situations where the bead won't work than situations where it will...why torture yourself?

Mike

Reply to
grphxman1

i concur. this phenomenon is often referred to as "half-baked". ;)

Reply to
kb

Couldn't agree more, after you've spent a few hours thinking I must me doing something wrong this feature must be capable of more you eventually realise it's next to useless. Even caterpillar doesn't always work the way you want it to.

John Layne

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Reply to
John Layne

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