No more weld bead in SW2012 assembly 2

[steinmini]

To my great disappointment, the weld bead part creation method in SW2010 (in assemblies) is no longer supported in SW2012. Only cosmetic weld beads which are not appearing in renders. Is there a simple workaround this to get decent realistic appearances in renderings, I have a lot of combinations of sheet metal parts combined with round tubes which look very raw without weld beads. It is possible to create sweeps, lofts and other features to get the appearance, but it requires at least as much time as building the assembly. Or, to create one more complete model built up from scratch as a part and use fillets to represent the welded joints. Saving an assembly as a part and simply adding fillets doesn't work because it gets saved as a set of surfaces... Any simple solution to this issue?

http://www.storyofstuff.org/

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Saving an assembly as a part and simply adding fillets doesn't work because it gets saved as a set of surfaces.

Saving as Exterior Faces is but one of three options. There are also Exterior Components & All Components options.

 

[steinmini]

Thanks. Didn't notice that option at all. Have to convert to a part file, but it's ok as long as I don't have to make dozens of planes and drawings and paths... Great tip!

http://www.storyofstuff.org/

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Doesn't the Insert > Assembly Feature > Weld Bead function work for you?

 

[steinmini]

It works as long as I don't expect it to be showing up in a render or a drawing (didn't check yet if I need to set it to show up in the technical drawing) but it definitely doesn't show up in renders. SW2010 created a part file in the assembly when the weld bead fillet was added. SW2012 doesn't support that anymore, just a cosmetic feature, I need to create a photo-realistic render of the product and since all the bits and pieces are not glued together but welded, it would be nice to have them appear. I sorted most of the weld fillets in one of the sub-assembly/parts, some remain unsolvable, I even tried to combine three parts to make them act as one solid body, but this weld fillet won't apply, I'll try to fake some welds on such points with adding sweep or loft. However, more than half of the parts I managed to "weld" and it's showing up in the PV render
I attached the image showing the construction and the weld fillets applied are gray on the red part.

http://www.storyofstuff.org/

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Have you tried creating the frame as a Weldment instead of an assy? Do the Weldment welds have the same problem?

 

[Eltron]

Yeah, that screams weldment to me. CBL, in a weldment Fillet Beads do show up on renders.

Dan

http://www.eltronresearch.com

Dan's Blog

 

[steinmini]

Building the whole assembly (or a part in this case) as a set of structural members does work fine with welds, I had no doubts about it, however, there are particular pieces that are machined prior to assembly and those resist to weld fillets in both cases. The only way is to create these as solid cylinders and define their final shape after the weldment has been applied. Whichever method I choose, I'll end up with some extra work if I want to get the appearance I'm looking for. Here's a specific section I can't join with a weld bead or weld fillet, the vertical tube is connected to both red horizontal tube and the green pre-machined part. The combine command between the machined and horizontal tube section does make it look like one body, but still does not allow me to make any weld between the two bodies. I don't mind having some small extra work in order to get the desired appearance, I was only looking for a shortcut, some more efficient way to get the desired result. If there isn't one, well, then I'll do some extra work. The first reply to the initial question actually helped a lot. I can't expect to get everything with a simple trick. No such thing as a free lunch, right?

http://www.storyofstuff.org/

 

[steinmini]

I must admit I made an unintentional mistake. Found that the vertical tube was cut with a slightly larger diameter which actually was the reason I couldn't get the weld bead applied. The small gap and the concentric mate were just enough not to get an intersecting virtual edge between bodies which is required to get a weld bead where I wanted it.There some other sections with gaps, but of less importance to have a visible fillet there. Thank you people. Now I just proved that parts designed for machining/fabrication must not always be the best parts for visual presentations. I had them made the way I needed them for fabrication, now I only need to make a slightly modified copy to get it ready for a visual presentation

http://www.storyofstuff.org/

 

[maxh3]

I ran into that problem just today with SW2011. I made a weldment part (with clearances here and there for manufacturing) and went to apply some weld beads for show, and low and behold, I couldn't stick weld beads in the areas where I'd left a few thousandths clearance.