Robust, associative procedure for making weldments

[Nukengr]

Does anyone know a good procedure for making a fully associative weldment, from development through a final machined part in SW 2007, (not a machined assembly)? The options I've seen online and in classes so far always disassociates the individual development pieces after the assembly stage so any modification to them, (i.e. chamfering for v-notch welds, changes in plate thickness due to supply, etc) doesn't show up on the final machined part. Machined assemblies with "Weld beads" create too many extra files for a PDM to keep up with.

I've been doing this with large weldments (>50 pieces) for 10 years in Pro-E but haven't ran across a good method in SW yet. Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[rhythmman]

What specifically don't you like about using multi-body parts with the Weldments functionality?

If you need separate drawings of pieces of the weldment (or separate views on the overall drawing), then it might be best to model them separately and use "insert part" to add them to the weldment model.

Regards,
John

 

[CSLufkin]

If you are looking for detailed drawings of the Weldment components that are still linked to your multi-body weldment part, you can try inserting a view of the entire Weldment part, then hiding all the bodies you don't want in that drawing view. It is a little clumsy, but it keeps you from saving the bodies out and breaking any links.

 

[rgrayclamps]

Hi, Nukengr:

Why do you disassociate the individual development pieces (bodies) from your weldment part? You can make a drawing for each body (piece) in your drawing of the weldment part. They are fully associative.

Good luck!

Alex

 

[bearly]

I can think of one reason to disassociate them -- sheet metal. If your weldment has any more than one sheet metal part in it then you have to "disassociate" them, since SW won't allow multi-body sheet metal parts (at least as far as I know).

 

[brengine]

CSLufkin,

Does that actually work? I haven't tried in a while, but if I remember correctly hiding bodies either didn't work, or it messed up the CutList (I think the latter one).

The best way I know of to get a detail view of just one body in a multi-body part is to insert a "Relative View" into the drawing.

Ken