coping structural members

[GirlGeek]

I'm new to solidworks and need help figuring out how to cope the ends of structural members created with the Weldments tools. I've attached a file showing what I need to do. Can anyone please point me in the right direction? We use these on skids, the channel is cut and then the flange is bent and welded. Thanks.

 

[NL8]

If you're looking to show the bend in weldments you'll be out of luck. While SW may have a command that will show the bend it won't be a command in the weldment menu. If you're looking to cut the material around the pipe away from the channel just use a weldment trim command. It's pretty self explanatory and the previews are accurate, so you can try a few options to get exactly what you want before you confirm.

Joe Hasik, CSWP/SMTL
SW 09 x64, SP 4.0
Dell T3400
Intel Core2 Quad
Q6700 2.66 GHz
3.93 GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600

 

[GirlGeek]

Thank you. I've already figured out how to trim the channel for the pipe. Does anyone know how I can work around the lack of a bend command for this?

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Have you tried the Flex function on that bent leg?

 

[Gupta65]

Flex should do the job for you or you can create the base sketch as per the shape you need so that the weldment looks bended.

Deepak Gupta
SW2009 SP3.0
SW2007 SP5.0
MathCAD 14.0

 

[GirlGeek]

Now that I'm back on this project I've tried the Flex tool. It looks like it should do what I need but I can't seem to get the results I'm after. Can anyone play with it and see how I should be using Flex to accomplish this?
Thanks!

 

[okeng]

GirlGeek,

This isn't really pertinent to your SW question, but just generally on forming the ends of beams and channels for skids. One of my customers and I worked out a really slick way to do this by making a plate part that's bent into a tapered channel. The beam itself is just cut off square, and this formed channel is welded on, and it takes care of all the fitup to the round tube. The nicest thing, and the actual driving factor on the whole effort, is that it gives you a nice radius everywhere you need it when you wrap the winch line around the tube.

I think he had a hard time selling the idea to his welders until they actually did it, but now they use them on everything. We've done a couple of sizes now, and he has them plasma-cut and bent in batches and keeps them on hand. He or the fab shop would probably sell them if anyone wanted to buy some.
Jess Davis

http://www.davisprecisiondesign.com

jess@davisprecisiondesign.com