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

 

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.

 

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.

 

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

Mike

 

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

 

for fillet weld. I'm selecting one side of the vertical member and the

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

 

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

 

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

 

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
www.solidengineering.co.nz