For SolidWorks 2010 users there exists a small but good assortment of various 2D profiles available to create weldment members from. The list includes angle iron, pipe, and square tubes in a plethora of sizes. It is a good place to start but you may have not known that SolidWorks provides the user with many more profile choices. This data is stored in an area in the Task Pane called "SolidWorks Content."
The Content is not exclusively for weldments but also includes blocks for drawings and components for SolidWorks Routing. To "download" this content to a folder location on your computer, simple hold down the CONTROL key of your keyboard and click one of the library files (such as "Ansi Inch" from the Weldments folder). SolidWorks will prompt you for a location to store the compressed files to. Once saved, open a WIndows browser and extract or unzip the file.
Particularly for weldment profiles, SolidWorks needs to know where the profiles are stored. For example, if you installed SolidWorks with all of the default locations then the default profiles would look something like this...View this photo
SolidWorks needs only one path for the weldment profiles. You may either replace this path with the location of the Content you extracted or extract the Content and move it in to the existing location of your weldment profiles. Regardless, the path folder structure is important.
The top-level folder is the starting path SolidWorks needs set in the Tools, System Options, File Locations, Weldment Profiles. The first sub-folder is the Standard (if you've downloaded Ansi Inch then this would be the name of the first sub-folder). Subsequent folders make up the Type. And within each of these folders are the actual SolidWorks library part files that host the sketch used to generate the profile along a path. An example path may look something like this...View this photo
Creating new profiles is very easy, then. Use SolidWorks to open one of these library part files (.sldlfp), save the document as a new name, and modify the sketch as you desire.
As always your Reseller can assist you with this and any other questions you may have regarding SolidWorks' Weldment Profiles. Additionally feel free to leave me a comment at the bottom of this blog.
Comments