When you create a Weldment feature in a part, SolidWorks automatically creates two “Default” configurations:
- Default<As Machined>: Parent configuration
- Default<As Welded>: Derived configuration
The idea behind this is that features that are only in the machined/finished version can be suppressed in the derived configuration without affecting the parent configuration. Since changing the state of a feature at the parent level will affect the derived, but changing the state of a feature at the child (derived) level will not affect the parent, it makes sense.
To keep the configurations straight, SolidWorks changes the name of the parent configuration to change to add the “<As Machined>” and adds “<As Welded>” to the name of the derived configuration, as you see below:
To accomplish this, SolidWorks actually adds the “<As Machined">” and “<As Welded>” to the configurations in the Description fields of each configuration:
If you don’t want to SolidWorks to create the “<As Machined>” and “<As Welded>” descriptions, go to Tools, Options, and click on the General tab. Find the setting “Disable additional weldment configuration strings” and check the box.
Now, when you add a weldment feature to a part, SolidWorks will still create the derived configuration from the parent Default, but there will be no special descriptions made; SolidWorks will keep the parent configuration name as is (in this case, “Default”) and then add
“-welded” to the derived configuration, as pictured below:
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