Using The Weld Feature in SolidWorks

I promised to do a tutorial on the weld tool to someone who left a comment a few weeks back, so here is the first installment of weld tools in SolidWorks.

Here is a simple strap that will get welded:

 

The weld tool is available to use in a part file, but the edge or joint you are going to weld need to be separate bodies.  In this part you can see there are three separate bodies.  The weld tool is found under the weldments tools and toolbar:

 

Clicking on this brings up the Fillet Bead tool with the following property manager:

  

By clicking the different face sets you will end up with a virtual edge as shown above.  Here is the resulting weld bead:

 

Now lets play with some of the settings in the Weld Bead tool.  Aside from simply changing the width of the bead, you can also create a staggered bead:

 

Once you put the part into a drawing you can then call out the weld bead by inserting a weld symbol:

 

This is just a small portion of the weld tools available in SolidWorks.  Next time we'll cover weld beads in an assembly.

Comments

[Sam Inman]

Hi Question: Has anyone worked to create items such as shirts or tents, and created the patterns along with the stitch patterns, being able to take a model from 3D to 2D and have everything transpose properly? I have not been able to. I have had to create entirely separate models each based on end all intent, and that has been a lot of extra work. Do you have any suggestions?

[Steve Calvert]

Mike, when you create the weld symbol in your drawing does SW use the information from the weld itself to create it? Your example shows a staggered bead, does this info move over into the symbol?