What do Weldments in SolidWorks and my IPod have to do with each other you might ask? Nothing, aside from the fact that I’m listening to ITunes as I write this post. I finally broke down and bought an IPod Nano a few weeks ago and have now spent more money on song downloads than I did on the damn player. Right now, I’m listening to my 80′s playlist, reliving my high school years…
Now for the meat of this post, Weldments. Up until recently, I never used the Weldments function in SolidWorks very much. Lately, though, I’ve been using it on an almost daily basis. Have you used it? I know that there are some that don’t like it very much, but I don’t see why. I’m enjoying the hell out of it. It really makes things easier if you ask me. With a fairly simple skeleton sketch, you can create a nice weldment, complete with a cutlist, in no time. As with so much in SolidWorks, it’s pretty intuitive as well. Granted, I use to teach how to use weldments, when I was on the "other side", but it didn’t take me long to get the hang of it. Now I’m not claiming to be an expert at it. I’m sure there’s some tricks that I don’t know on how to make it even more simple, but as I’ve said so often before, if I can do it, anyone can.
If you’re in a field that creates welded structures, I strongly recommend you check out weldments. There’s a tutorial in SolidWorks to get you started, then dive right in and started creating your own.
If you’ve used weldments, and have some tips and tricks, I’d love to hear from you!
GO SOX!!
