I used to create welded items the same way I created assemblies (Model each member independantly then assemble all the parts / members in an assembly). When it came to drawings, I would create one drawing for each of the parts and then an assembled drawing showing the finished state of the fabrication with a BOM detailing the parts used.
I have now come accross what I beleive is the "correct" way of handling welded parts.
I currently use Solidworks weldments and create a single drawing for the entire fabrication. The problem is that the workshop are complaining that the drawing is too crowded and it is difficult to find dimensions for the various parts. (Bearing in we can only print on a max. page size of A3).
By creating a single drawing for an entire fabrication, members are shown in context to the end product. After all you aren't going to disassemble a fabrication without using an angle grinder, ie. it IS a single part. (Often it is imperative that machining is carried out after welding. How do you show that if a part is drawn independant of the fabrication itself?)
How is everyone else out there handling fabrications and what do you see as the pros and cons of the two options to handle them.
I have now come accross what I beleive is the "correct" way of handling welded parts.
I currently use Solidworks weldments and create a single drawing for the entire fabrication. The problem is that the workshop are complaining that the drawing is too crowded and it is difficult to find dimensions for the various parts. (Bearing in we can only print on a max. page size of A3).
By creating a single drawing for an entire fabrication, members are shown in context to the end product. After all you aren't going to disassemble a fabrication without using an angle grinder, ie. it IS a single part. (Often it is imperative that machining is carried out after welding. How do you show that if a part is drawn independant of the fabrication itself?)
How is everyone else out there handling fabrications and what do you see as the pros and cons of the two options to handle them.
If a drawing is getting cumbersome to work with, in SW2008 you can copy sheets from one drawing file to another. So you could do all your fab views in one drawing file and all the plate details in another file to speed things up and when you're all done, cut and paste them back together again (into one big cumbersome file).