What is the "Best Practice" for...

That is pretty much the way I have always done it. Incontext and layout sketches can also be used to help with the design process.

It largely depends on your environment. Some also use multibodies and split part functions for weldments. 2004 also has some new 'weldment' functionality. I have always found these methods more restricting and the new 2004 features don't work well with sheet metal weldments.

Also, some companies treat every piece of a weldment as a separate unique part, while others treat the parts as separate sheets to the weldment drawing. Thus, with the latter method, parts are never revised, only the weldment as a whole.

I guess there is no 'best way.' It depends largely on how you wish to manage and build weldments.

We do basically the same thing. To help with your bom if you go into configuration properties there is a checkbox at the bottom labeled don't show child components in BOM. You may want this checked. In 2004 there are new weldment features. These look promising, though I have not been able to work with them much. I did create a drawing of a trailer. It was very simple to create and edit, and you don't have to deal with mates. We may use this method in the future, the only problem we haven't worked out is assigning individual part numbers to each unique part in the model.

Regards,

Corey Scheich

2004 weldments is the way to go!! I have been using it for a while and find it heaps quicker (providing you have a weldment library for your local steel sections) than creating assemblies. If you pre-load the custom properties into the weldment library features and create a few weldment 'cut list' templates to suit your needs, you will find it can give you all of the info that can currently get from an assembly.

Don't forget that you can also create library features of common wedments items such as: lifting lugs, cleats, base plates, etc.

Merry :-)

Thanks Guys,

I just started up my subscription again, so I'll be looking forward to SW2004.

Muggs