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We are going live again on January 30th! Join us to see a preview of weldments

Joseph_L

Joseph_L

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We are going live AGAIN on Friday January 30th! This time, we will be featuring a brief preview of weldments. The stream will be at 10AM mountain, 11AM central, 9AM Pacific and 12PM Eastern. We are excited to take your questions!

You can access the live stream here:


Since we will be taking questions live, you can drop your question in the comments, or join us live on the air and share your screen at this link here:

Live Studio | Wave.video

wave.video live studio
wave.video wave.video

We can't wait to see you!
 
So I have a massive requirement for weldment functionality.
I used to do hundreds of steel designs with structural and tube materials. I admit that it was in SW over a 12 year stretch.
I used to do pressure vessel design, skid and enclosures. In another job as well.
I did lots of fabrication or cable handling equipment, reels, cradles and so much more.
I hope to see Alibre be able to handle this requirement like a champ.
I have attached a few designs to be able to recreate and move forward with Alibre
 

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Alibre V29 looks promising! In the last video we saw that error messages from the kernel are now shown in the UI. This is already a good step into the right direction!
Would it be possible to (additionally) show the most likely reason and how to mitigate it? (E.g. the software could internally try to determine the change that led to the error, offer an undo and potentially give guidance how to avoid the error in the next attempt based on the attempted operation and the state of the part - or even propose the biggest/smallest value that would still be valid, e.g. in case of a fillet radius). This could be a huge time saver!
 
Error messages have always been available to show in the UI - if you have 'show popup on errors' enabled. The current problem with that is that error messages are modal, so have to be acknowledged before you can do anything else (which is why some people turn them off). V29 presents errors in a non-modal way, so less intrusive.
 
DavidJ said:
Error messages have always been available to show in the UI - if you have 'show popup on errors' enabled. The current problem with that is that error messages are modal, so have to be acknowledged before you can do anything else (which is why some people turn them off). V29 presents errors in a non-modal way, so less intrusive.
Click to expand...
Not sure why Alibre haven't utilised the 'Status Bar' at the bottom of every window application ... after all, this kind of non-modal messaging is what it is intended for!
 
simonb65 said:
Not sure why Alibre haven't utilised the 'Status Bar' at the bottom of every window application ... after all, this kind of non-modal messaging is what it is intended for!
Click to expand...
Yes and I would prefer that over the progress loading mini dialog that blocks the UI during import/export. Or redirect to the welcome window.
 
Are weldments making:
Real bodies represented in STEP and IGES as bodies (multibodies) - Alibre topology bodies (multibodies)? Or is the weldment system just built on top of the current system we have in v28 without any geometry kernel updates and Alibre new code for multibodies? Expanded Model Pieces feature? Just asking questions.
 
stepalibre said:
Are weldments making:
Real bodies represented in STEP and IGES as bodies (multibodies) - Alibre topology bodies (multibodies)? Or is the weldment system just built on top of the current system we have in v28 without any geometry kernel updates and Alibre new code for multibodies? Expanded Model Pieces feature? Just asking questions.
Click to expand...
Good question- the new weldments feature has true multibody capability, so each body is an independent body even though it is coincident with other bodies.
 
bodies.png

V29 the body count = 4? Lumps = bodies, or two separate systems? What are model pieces under V29?

My understanding is, bodies could have coordinate systems of their own, Lumps use the same coordinate system as the part. Are the topology collections totals combining all members or does each member have topology collections or topology section is getting updated/remove from the UI?

1769811726687.png

This is a critical distinction for the API and scripting. A new system or is the core unchanged. For example, could @NateLiquidGravity update his product to somehow add weldment features or libraries?

If topology selection is removed from weldment parts, how does that affect scripts and addons?
 
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It depends on where you're talking, the multibody capabilities will be in the weldment module but not yet in the part environment. The part environment in V29 looks like this:1769812783587.png
Whereas in weldments it would say 4 bodies instead of 4 lumps.
 
Separate environments are better and weldments introducing mutlibody is smart. The body count isn't really what matters. You can make a tool that has multibody features with the API, part booleans and Frame Builder approach. What's missing is an API for design explorer integration.

I cant wait to try it. My only suggestion is a breakdown of what's not supported in weldment parts.
 
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Caught up on the latest Live Stream and thought I'd add some thoughts on it.

There was a question about a list of Best Practices for Alibre. - In the Help Manual there is a section of Best Practices but as I read them they seem to be Alibre specific related to issues that users may run into. I think every CAD program out there has its own list of BP's but there are some general ones that can be implemented across all CAD programs and a quick internet search on BP's should get you a decent list.
best practices in help.jpg

cad BPs.jpg
 
Re: Weldments, the live stream had a great question about weldment output, but wasn't really answered. So, what is the output of weldments? Apart from the 3D modelling, what technical output are we to expect? Drawing mark-up? Cut patterns?

I didn't see any definition of each joint weld type at the design stage, other than just how you want the cut!

Also, why is this a separate workspace? Aren't weldments just a collection of parts in an assembly?

The brief preview creates more questions that answers as to what is missing and how does it really differ from, and what does it really offer over, the FrameBuilder from @NateLiquidGravity !
 
Simon, good questions. I haven't seen much of the weldment module yet, so can't give many answers. The 'cut list' output was mentioned in the live stream, though no example shown. You can set the gap width where pieces come together.

Weld type definition may well rely on using weld symbols in 2D drawings.

I haven't studied Nate's Frame builder in any detail so can't compare, the only demo I watched didn't show curved pieces - that may be a difference.

I would hope that 2D drawings of the entire weldment, and also of individual pieces will be possible.

From a visual point of view for using the weldment in an assembly, it would be really nice if it can be easily shown without gaps, and maybe even with simulated weld beads in place - that my be wishful thinking on my part....

I have some vague thoughts on why it's not done as an assembly, but not fully clear on that.

Hopefully Joseph can fill in some more detail, and no doubt more details will emerge as the release gets closer.
 
Cut lists - will it take into consideration the raw stock lengths or just the cut length of the parts? How does that relate to purchasing material if stock lengths aren't considered? I think one example that @Joseph_L had was a truss weldment that was created from stock that was longer than the finished truss. How will that show up on the cut list?
Actual modeled weld beads - it was a really big deal when SolidWorks added them to its weldments even if some of them were not quite right. It does make the model look finished though.
 
Based on studying some on-line resources based on SW weldments (so may not be entirely relevant).

It seems that a multi-body part enables a faster/easier workflow, and allows easier edits compared to working in an assembly. No need to apply assembly constraints, only one file rather than many.

Weldments don't allow relative movement of parts - the structure is rigid. So there may be occasions when an assembly approach is preferred instead.

I've also come across people using weldments as a faster way to design such things as timber decking.

Like all things, there will be advantages and disadvantages to the weldment approach. It'll be interesting to see details going forward.
 
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