I want to re-visit the question of simulating welded joints.  In post " " Richard Wehmeyer wrote the following:

>>The simplest way to [simulate a weld] is to draw the component as it is welde[d]. For a pipe this will include the two pipes and a ridge on the outside and inside.  If the base metal and weld material are very dissimilar in elasticity and poissan's ratio (example case would be brazing or soldering) you will need to create the two base parts/bodies and create a seperate part/body of the weld bead.<<

Is Richard's still the best approach to this problem, given SW 2015/2016?  I will need to do stress/strain simulations on welded parts.  There seem to be several options including fillets (which apparently cannot be applied to separate parts without first using "Join"), weld beads and fillet beads (these two being weldment features and apparently presuming multi-body parts), and the kind of direct modeling described above.  (I've started learning about weldments from the "SW Bible," but as that book doesn't cover simulation, there's some doubt about how these features would behave.)

The direct-modeling method seems awfully cumbersome -- there should be a simpler way! -- but it may well be the most accurate.  Comments or suggestions anyone? -- John Willett