4 Replies Latest reply on Apr 15, 2019 9:22 AM by Dustin Beaulieu

    Multi-Weldment Extrusion Part File

    Dustin Beaulieu
    Dustin Beaulieu Apr 12, 2019 4:31 PM

      There has GOT to be someone out there who can point me in the right direction!!!

       

      I am designing a trailer and there are 3 or 4 different types of tubing being used. All of the tubes must be bent at the same position to create and angled slope at the back. I am able to do this without issue.....until I get to my cut list. Solidworks appears to be creating a bounding box to populate these dimensions.

       

      What I need is to be able to provide the guys the correct length of tube prior to bending. How can I achieve this! I obviously do not want to manipulate the cut list properties manually because when I create another part file in a different length, I need to then go into each tube again to manipulate the lengths to accommodate the new trailer length.

       

      Any help on this issue would be greatly appreciated!!

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        • Re: Multi-Weldment Extrusion Part File
          Glenn Schroeder
          Glenn Schroeder Apr 12, 2019 4:47 PM (in response to Dustin Beaulieu)

          How did you create the bent tubing?  If you created it as a weldment using the Structural Member function then the total length would be automatically created as the cut list property "LENGTH".  If you created it as a simple Sweep instead then you should be able to edit the path sketch, adding a Path Length dimension (selecting all the lines and arcs) that's driven by the other dimensions, and use that for a custom property or cut list property.

            • Re: Multi-Weldment Extrusion Part File
              Dustin Beaulieu
              Dustin Beaulieu Apr 15, 2019 8:51 AM (in response to Glenn Schroeder)

              Thanks for the follow up, Glenn.

               

              I used the structural member. Correct, the length property is being applied in the cut list; however, it is being treated as a bounding box dimension. If I make the tube 20' long, and then split/rotate the last 4 feet of the tube at a 15° angle, the length is changed to something other than 20' which is undesirable since the tube needs to be cut at 20'.

               

              I am able to modify the length property by unlocking the property and overwriting it, but this becomes a maintenance nightmare when there are 5 different lengths and a pack-and-go is done to go from one size to the next. Then all of the properties need to be changed each time. This is how I am going about it now, but it just seems like a problem waiting to happen.

               

              Any thoughts?