CATI Technotes: SolidWorks Weldments from Profiles to Cut Lists

SolidWorks Weldments from Profiles to Cut Lists - Part3

Welcome to part 3 of our SolidWorks Weldment series. In this part, we will be concentrating on the modification tools including the Trim/Extend feature, Gussets & End Caps.

Let's start with the trimming options. Looking at the example below, we will take a look at the top grid portion of this model. We have created 2 Structural members to create the grid. As you can see, all the members are intersecting. We need to trim.

In this example, we will be trimming the 1 center piece to the 3 crossmembers. In this case it is much simpler to select "Bodies" for the trimming boundary, but you always have an option to use faces or planes.

Here we see the outcome

Now in reversed order

We also have the option to create a weld gap if desired.

In the previous blog article in this series, John went over edge conditions when creating the structural members which include the trim options, however, you can still add trim options after the fact instead of going back and changing the trim orders:

	Original	Mitered	Reversed

Here we trimmed the center piece back to the center cross member (of course it can always be extended in the same manner.)

Now, let's cap the open ends. Putting anend cap on is pretty simple, you just need to select the face to be capped. When capping, you have the thickness option to decide if the cap should be in or out, and of course the thickness.

Outward	Inward

The Thickness Ratio controls the size of the end cap itself. Set to .5, the cap will size to ½ the thickness of the material. 0 would bring the cap to the exact size of the structural member.

You also have the option to create a chamfer on the end cap.

Last, but not least, we also have the option to add gussets. This also is a straight forward procedure. You have the option of a triangular profile, or a chamfered profile. You have various controls of the thickness and positioning, or an offset from each position.

Start of profile	Midpoint	End of profile

Now that we have covered the trim options, let's take a look a more complicated corner. How do we get a 3 corner miter?

It's actually easier than you think. In this situation, we can modify the trim options in the Structural member. Simply edit the Structural member, and select the corner.

This will give us the corner treatment trim order.

Start by changing the corner treatment to "mitered" You will notice the trim order number for the first member is 1.

This is fine for the first, now select the arrows to display the second member.

You will notice that the trim order is set to 2. Simply change this to 1 (so all corners trim together)

Now we have a nice 3 corner miter

Please check back to the CATI Blog as the Dedicated Support Team will continue posting our series of articles that goes further into the details of SolidWorks Weldments. All of these articles will be stored in the category of Daily Dose.....of SolidWorks Support and links to each article with their release date are listed below: