1. WELDMANAGEMENT PRODUCT

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2 Table of Contents WeldManagement Product Workflow Overview Weld Types Weld Standards Weld Schedules Weld Statuses Weld Tags WeldManagement Drawings Update Weld Drawings Weld Manager Weld Symbol Labels WeldManagement Drawing Options

3 WELDMANAGEMENT PRODUCT The WeldManagement product allows users to define, manage and output production information for individual welds that may exist between various Structure parts and/or Assemblies. The process includes indentifying parts and material characteristics, choosing correct weld schedules, keeping track of quality control details, exchanging data with Excel, monitoring statuses of individual welds, preparing visual maps and labeling welds in assembly drawings. Workflow Overview Project Setup To begin working with the product, the user needs to correctly populate several catalogs located in the "Weld Management" menu in Manager with data. This includes setting up such catalogs as Weld Types, Weld Standards, Weld Schedules and Weld Statuses. In most cases, it may be easier to modify the data while following the same order in which the catalogs as listed in the previous sentence. The brief information on each catalog is provided below. The Weld Types catalog is prefilled with eighteen definitions of basic weld-procedure symbols such as Fillet, Bevel, V-Groove and other types that may only need to be modified by the user if there is a necessity to adjust the paper space size of a default symbol or its appearance. The Weld Standards catalog presents a library of all weld procedures used by the shipyard. The catalog does not contain any data according to its default state. The reason is that different shipyards are likely to use different weld procedures locally, so there is no need in pre-populating the catalog with records. For those users who would like to review sample weld standard definitions provided as part of the ShipConstructor installation, an XML file is available inside the "ProjectTemplates" folder of the installed ShipConstructor product. The Weld Schedules catalog contains a table that lists general sizes, locations and member types as well as assignments of weld standards to various combinations of the first three parameters. In its default configuration, the Weld Schedules catalog comes empty; however, the user can populate it with sample data by importing the corresponding XML file from the "ProjectTemplates" folder. The last catalog, Weld Statutes, presents a user-configurable list of different states that may apply to individual welds as part of the quality control process. Generating Welds Once the project is set up, the user may proceed to generating and managing welds. To generate welds the user needs to be in a weld management drawing where he or she can bring up the Weld Manager dialog (SCWELDMAN), the primary interface for defining and modifying welds. The welds are generated for assemblies that exist in the primary product hierarchy three. The generation operation searches for physical connections between individual parts and larger assemblies and creates one or more weld object for each connection. The operation does not require the user to load any parts into the weld management drawing as the process happens entirely in the ShipConstructor database. Assigning Weld Standards After generating welds, the user needs to decide which Weld Standards to assign to individual welds depending on the parts, thicknesses, locations, material grades used in places where different welds apply. The Weld Manager dialog offers convenient interface that presents multiple columns populated with data that can help the user to make the correct choice of the Weld Standard based on Weld Schedule. When choosing weld standards, some users may find is sufficient just looking at data presented in the Weld Manager dialog. Other users may want some visualization to this process as seeing the actual weld in the drawing can be helpful. Weld Management Drawing The Weld Management drawing is a special type of production drawing that acts like a viewport into the database. The user can load Structure parts into the Weld Management drawing by selecting them from the Product Hierarchy three shown in the Weld Manager dialog. Additionally, functionality is available for visualizing the weld objects as well. Note that all welds regardless of their standard have simplified cylindrical representations in drawings. The visual distinction among various types or states of welds can be achieved by changing the colorization pattern in the Weld Management Drawing Display Options dialog (SCDWGOPTIONSWELD). The user can switch among three colorization patterns such as Weld Entity, Weld Standard or Weld Status. If the user modifies a weld property inside the Weld Manager dialog, the changes will initially take effect in the database. To see the new visual appearance of the weld in the drawing as well as new properties in the OPM, the user needs to update the Weld Management drawing by running 3

4 the SCUPDATEDWG command. Note that this is the standard way to update a production drawing. TSV Import/Export The Weld Manager dialog supports import and export of data via TSV files. This can be a convenient step of the WeldManagement workflow that allows the quality inspector to temporarily extract information out of ShipConstructor and modify data in external software such as Microsoft Excel. The data can be imported back into Weld Manager at any time. Production Drawings Once the welds have been generated and assigned with standards, the user may proceed to generating production output. Weld objects can be included into Assembly drawings by placing a checkmark against the "Include weld" option. The user can label welds from an Assembly drawing BOM table that contains data retrieved by the Weld collector. Labeling can be done with regular ShipConstructor labels. Reports The default installation of ShipConstructor comes with two predefined WeldManagement reports that list important information that allows to estimate the amount of welding in the project. WORKFLOW OVERVIEW Project Setup To begin working with the product, the user needs to correctly populate several catalogs located in the "Weld Management" menu in Manager with data. This includes setting up such catalogs as Weld Types, Weld Standards, Weld Schedules and Weld Statuses. In most cases, it may be easier to modify the data while following the same order in which the catalogs as listed in the previous sentence. The brief information on each catalog is provided below. The Weld Types catalog is prefilled with eighteen definitions of basic weld-procedure symbols such as Fillet, Bevel, V-Groove and other types that may only need to be modified by the user if there is a necessity to adjust the paper space size of a default symbol or its appearance. The Weld Standards catalog presents a library of all weld procedures used by the shipyard. The catalog does not contain any data according to its default state. The reason is that different shipyards are likely to use different weld procedures locally, so there is no need in pre-populating the catalog with records. For those users who would like to review sample weld standard definitions provided as part of the ShipConstructor installation, an XML file is available inside the "ProjectTemplates" folder of the installed ShipConstructor product. The Weld Schedules catalog contains a table that lists general sizes, locations and member types as well as assignments of weld standards to various combinations of the first three parameters. In its default configuration, the Weld Schedules catalog comes empty; however, the user can populate it with sample data by importing the corresponding XML file from the "ProjectTemplates" folder. The last catalog, Weld Statutes, presents a user-configurable list of different states that may apply to individual welds as part of the quality control process. Generating Welds Once the project is set up, the user may proceed to generating and managing welds. To generate welds the user needs to be in a weld management drawing where he or she can bring up the Weld Manager dialog (SCWELDMAN), the primary interface for defining and modifying welds. The welds are generated for assemblies that exist in the primary product hierarchy three. The generation operation searches for physical connections between individual parts and larger assemblies and creates one or more weld object for each connection. The operation does not require the user to load any parts into the weld management drawing as the process happens entirely in the ShipConstructor database. Assigning Weld Standards After generating welds, the user needs to decide which Weld Standards to assign to individual welds depending on the parts, thicknesses, locations, material grades used in places where different welds apply. The Weld Manager dialog offers convenient interface that presents multiple columns populated with data that can help the user to make the correct choice of the Weld Standard based on Weld Schedule. When choosing weld standards, some users may find is sufficient just looking at data presented in the Weld Manager dialog. Other users may want some visualization to this process as seeing the actual weld in the drawing can be helpful. 4

5 Weld Management Drawing The Weld Management drawing is a special type of production drawing that acts like a viewport into the database. The user can load Structure parts into the Weld Management drawing by selecting them from the Product Hierarchy three shown in the Weld Manager dialog. Additionally, functionality is available for visualizing the weld objects as well. Note that all welds regardless of their standard have simplified cylindrical representations in drawings. The visual distinction among various types or states of welds can be achieved by changing the colorization pattern in the Weld Management Drawing Display Options dialog (SCDWGOPTIONSWELD). The user can switch among three colorization patterns such as Weld Entity, Weld Standard or Weld Status. If the user modifies a weld property inside the Weld Manager dialog, the changes will initially take effect in the database. To see the new visual appearance of the weld in the drawing as well as new properties in the OPM, the user needs to update the Weld Management drawing by running the SCUPDATEDWG command. Note that this is the standard way to update a production drawing. TSV Import/Export The Weld Manager dialog supports import and export of data via TSV files. This can be a convenient step of the WeldManagement workflow that allows the quality inspector to temporarily extract information out of ShipConstructor and modify data in external software such as Microsoft Excel. The data can be imported back into Weld Manager at any time. Production Drawings Once the welds have been generated and assigned with standards, the user may proceed to generating production output. Weld objects can be included into Assembly drawings by placing a checkmark against the "Include weld" option. The user can label welds from an Assembly drawing BOM table that contains data retrieved by the Weld collector. Labeling can be done with regular ShipConstructor labels. Reports The default installation of ShipConstructor comes with two predefined WeldManagement reports that list important information that allows to estimate the amount of welding in the project. 5

6 WELD TYPES The WeldManagement module contains eighteen predefined weld types. Types may not be added or removed, however the symbol representations of these types are fully customizable. Each weld type represents the type of weld done on a single pass of the welder. These weld types will be added to a weld standard in a later stage in the form of processes. Those processes will contain the properties defined in this stage, and can be further customized later on. The symbol representation of the weld type is defined using the weld type editor. To Edit a Weld Type Note: The Weld Type Editor is now an AutoCAD palette. It can be docked, or rolled up in AutoCAD. This can be very useful when trying to model the weld type. 6

7 From Manager, select Weld Types from the WeldManagement menu. Select the weld type whose symbol you wish to edit from the list, and then click the Edit Symbol button. This opens the editor window in AutoCAD. Create or edit the desired symbol using standard AutoCAD geometry elements. Before inserting a keyword, specify the size, rotation, and style. Then click the Insert button, and select the insertion point for the selected keyword in the drawing. When editing is complete, click the Close Drawing button in the window. This will return focus to the Weld Type window in Manager. To Export a Weld Type In the Weld Type window, place a checkmark in the export column next to all weld types that are to be exported. Click the Export XML button. Name the XML file and choose a directory to save it to, then click the Save button. To Import a Weld Type Click the Import button from the Weld Type window. When prompted, select the XML file or ShipConstructor project's.pro file which contains the weld types to be imported. The XML file or project may define multiple weld types. Place a checkmark next to the types to be imported and click the OK button. 7

8 Note: New weld types cannot be created, so importing a weld type will overwrite all geometry and keyword data for the existing weld type with the same name as the imported one. Note: Imported weld types are not saved to the database until the Weld Types window is saved by the user via the OK button. Usage Logs Usage logs are a convenient way to quickly see which weld standards implement a given weld type. This is useful, since any changes made to that weld type will affect all of those standards. To Create a Weld Type Usage Log Select a weld type from the list in the Weld Types window. Click the Usage Log button. This will generate a usage log for that weld type in a text file. WELD STANDARDS Once the weld types have been defined, it is time to define weld standards. Each weld in a project will have a weld standard assigned to it so that the welder knows what types of welds to apply to a given join, how many passes are required, and any other details. A weld standard is made up of one or more weld processes, where each process is of one of the types defined in the previous stage. The order that processes are added to the standard is the same order that each process will be applied to the weld, although this order can be modified after all processes are added to the standard. Once all desired processes have been added to the standard, the standard symbol can be further customized. 8

9 To Create a new Weld Standard Open the Weld Standards window by selecting Weld Standards from the WeldManagement menu. Click the New button. This will create a new weld standard with default properties and no processes or tail notes applied. Give the new standard a unique name and edit the material and model color by clicking on the appropriate cells on the grid. You can also add notes which will appear behind the tail of the weld symbol. Be sure to assign the tail notes size a value greater than 0, or the notes will not be visible on the symbol. You can now add weld processes to the standard. Select a type from the Types list, and then click the Add button. This will cause a process editor window to appear. The editable properties in this window vary depending on the weld type it describes. Once the desired properties have been entered, click the OK button. This will create a new row in the process list for the selected weld standard. Processes for other weld standards can be viewed by selecting those standards in the upper table. To Edit a Weld Process 9

10 Select the weld standard with processes to be edited from the upper table. Select the process to be edited in the lower table and click Properties The same window that was presented when the process was created will appear. Edit properties as desired and then click OK. To Delete a Weld Process Select the weld standard with processes to be deleted from the upper table Select the process to be deleted in the lower table and click Remove. Altering the Process Order The order that weld processes appear in the lower table represents the sequence in which they are applied to the weld. Processes at the top of the list are applied first, and those at the bottom are applied last. To change the order of this list, click on a weld process and click the Up or Down button. To Export a Weld Standard In the Weld Standards window, place a checkmark in the export column next to all weld standards that are to be exported. Click the Export button. Name the XML file and choose a directory to save it to, then click the Save button. To Import a Weld Standard Click the Import button from the Weld Standards window. When prompted, select the XML file or ShipConstructor project's.pro file which contains the weld standards to be imported. The XML file or project may define multiple weld standards. Place a checkmark next to the standards to be imported and click the OK button. Note: Imported weld standards are not saved to the database until the Weld Standards window is saved by the user via the OK or Apply buttons. 10

11 To Copy a Weld Standard Click on the weld standard to be copied in the upper table in the Weld Standards window. Click the Copy button. This will create a new weld standard with all the same properties of the original standard and add it to the list. To Edit the Weld Standard Symbol Note: The Weld Standard Symbol Editor is now an AutoCAD palette. It can be docked, or rolled up in AutoCAD. This can be very useful when trying to model the symbol. Select the weld standard whose symbol you wish to edit from the list, and then click the Edit Symbol button. This opens the editor window in AutoCAD. Symbols defined for individual weld processes can be dragged as a unit which includes all geometry and keywords defined for that weld type. Create or edit any custom geometry using standard AutoCAD geometry elements. Before inserting a keyword, specify the size, rotation, and style. Then click the Insert button, and select the insertion point for the selected keyword in the drawing. Note: Keywords can only be inserted if they were assigned a value in the weld process Properties window. 6. Create or edit any custom text using AutoCAD Text or MText. When editing is complete, click the Close Drawing button in the window. This will return focus to the Weld Standards window in Manager. To Reset a Standard Symbol A weld standard symbol can be returned to its default appearance by selecting that standard from the upper list and then clicking the Reset Symbol button. This will return the symbol to the appearance it had when it was first created. This means that all custom geometry and text will be removed and all process symbols will be moved back to their default locations. Also, any deleted processes will be brought back. Usage Logs The weld standards usage log is used to instantly reference which scenarios and welds utilize a given standard. This allows the user to quickly view which welds will be affected by a change to that standard. To Create a Weld Standard Usage Log Select a weld type from the list in the Weld Standards window. Click the Usage Log button. This will generate a usage log for that weld standard in a text file. 11

12 WELD SCHEDULES The weld schedule is used to organize weld standards into particular scenarios where they will be used. Each row in the schedule represents a scenario in the project. These scenarios consist of a physical location on the ship, as well as two types of parts to be welded together. Each of these scenarios is further subdivided by the minimum thickness columns, which represent the thickness of the smaller part to be welded. Multiple welds may be applied to each thickness, and a single weld standard may be applied to multiple scenarios and thicknesses. To Create a New Scenario Open the Weld Schedules window by selecting Weld Schedules from the WeldManagement menu. Click the New button. This will create a new scenario and add it to the bottom row of the table. The Location, First Welded Member, and Second Welded Member fields will all be filled with default values. On the newly added scenario, click on the cell in the Location column. From the list that appears, select the location on the ship that this scenario pertains to. Repeat step 4 for the First Welded Member and Second Welded Member columns, selecting appropriate part types for each. Note: The Location, First Welded Member, and Second Welded Member values can be edited at any time by following steps 4 and To Create a New Location Click the Locations button in the Weld Schedules window. The Edit Weld Schedule Locations window will appear. Click New in this window. 12

13 A new row in the Locations list will be created with a default name. Click on the row to rename the location. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for however many new locations are desired. To remove a location, select it in the list and click the Delete button. Note: If the location to be deleted is currently in use in a schedule, a warning message will appear to inform the user of which scenarios are using that location. 6. Click OK to close this window. Note: The newly created locations will be immediately available in the location list, for use in scenario editing or creation. To Create a New Member Click the Members button in the Weld Schedules window. The Editing Weld Schedule Members window will appear. Click New in this window. A new row in the Members list will be created with a default name. Click on the row to rename the member. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for as many new members are required. To remove a member, select it in the list and click the Delete button. Note: If the member to be deleted is currently in use in a schedule, a warning message will appear to inform the user of which scenarios are using that member. 6. Click OK to close this window. Note: The newly created members will be immediately available in the First Welded Member and Second Welded Member menus, for use in scenario editing or creation. To Create a New Thickness Column Click the Sizes button in the Weld Schedules window. Following the same steps as for locations and members, create or delete new minimum thickness values in the table presented in the Editing Weld Schedule Minimum Thickness window. 13

14 Click OK when finished. New columns will appear in the schedule, corresponding to the new values entered. To Assign Weld Standards Whenever the Weld Schedules window is open, a list on the right side will display all created weld standards present. This list allows the user to view and edit which standards are used in each scenario. Click on a cell in the weld schedule in one of the thickness columns. That cell contains the names of any weld standards used in that scenario for that minimum thickness. The weld standards list will show a checkmark next to each standard that is included. To add a standard to the selected scenario and thickness, place a checkmark next to the desired standard in the Used column of the weld standards list. To remove a standard from a given scenario, remove the corresponding checkmark from the standards list. Note: Weld standards may be applied to several scenarios simultaneously by group-selecting several cells in the weld schedule and then placing a checkmark next to the desired standard as in step Replacing Weld Standards If there is a situation in which several instances of a certain weld standard need to be replaced with another standard, this can be done in a single operation. This avoids the tedious task of selecting each scenario individually, deleting the existing standard, and adding the replacement. In the weld schedule, group-select all cells containing the standard to be swapped out. Click the Replace Standards button. The Replace a Weld Standard window will appear. In this window, the list on the left represents all standards present in the user's selected cells. The list on the right represents all existing weld standards (with the currently selected standard from the left list removed). 14

15 6. Select the standard to be removed in the left list, and the desired replacement standard in the right list, then click Replace. Repeat step 4 for any other standards to be replaced. Click the Close button. Using Row Filters Row filters can be used to simplify the weld schedule when working with large amounts of data. The Location, First Welded Member and Second Welded Member columns each have a user-editable filter at the top of each column. Since the data in the First Welded Member and Second Welded Member are interchangeable, a filter applied to one column will apply to both. Filters can be cleared by clicking the x in the filter cell, or all applied filters can be removed at once by clicking the Clear Filters button. To Export a Weld Schedule In the Weld Schedule window, place a checkmark in the export column next to all weld schedules that are to be exported. Click the Export button. Name the XML file and choose a directory to save it to, then click the Save button. To Import a Weld Schedule Click the Import button from the Weld Schedules window. When prompted, select the XML file or ShipConstructor project's.pro file which contains the weld schedules to be imported. The XML file or project may define multiple weld schedules. Place a checkmark next to the schedules to be imported and click the OK button. Note: Imported weld schedules are not saved to the database until the Weld Schedules window is saved by the user via the OK or Apply buttons. 15

16 6. WELD STATUSES Weld Statuses are a user-defined list of states that can be assigned to welds. By default, every project has the Created, Approved, and Rejected statuses. This list can be expanded by the user. There must be a single default status, which all newly-created welds will use, until their status is changed to another value in the list. Each Weld Status has a color associated with it: this color may affect how the weld is displayed in production drawings, depending on the drawing options. To Create a new Weld Status Open the Weld Status window by selecting Weld Statuses from the WeldManagement menu. Click the New Status button. This will create a new weld status with default properties. Give the new status a unique name and edit the color and description by clicking on the appropriate cells on the grid. To Export a Weld Status In the Weld Statuses window, place a checkmark in the export column next to all weld statuses that are to be exported. Click the Export button. Name the XML file and choose a directory to save it to, then click the Save button. To Import a Weld Status Click the Import button from the Weld Statuses window. When prompted, select the XML file or ShipConstructor project's.pro file which contains the weld statuses to be imported. The XML file or project may define multiple weld statuses. Place a checkmark next to the statuses to be imported and click the OK button. Note: Imported weld statuses are not saved to the database until the Weld Statuses window is saved by the user via the OK or Apply buttons. 16

17 7. WELD TAGS Every weld has a Weld Tag associated with it for identification purposes. This tag is generated on weld creation via a naming convention defined in Manager and cannot be edited. The naming convention may consist of information pertinent to the weld such as the unit and assembly that the welded parts exist in, as well as any user-defined text that may be useful. Weld Tags are unique, as an automatically incremented number is associated with each tag, Every weld must have a Weld Tag assigned to it, and Weld Tags cannot be generated without an associated Naming Convention. For this reason, the Weld Tag Naming Convention must be defined before Welds can be generated. Defining a Weld Tag Naming Convention Open the Naming Conventions window in Manager. General > Naming Conventions In the Name Conventions panel on the left side, expand the Weld node and select Welds. Then click the New button. Using the controls in the right panel, add and edit any static text or database properties that should be associated with the Weld Tags. Click OK when done. Now generate welds via the Weld Manager. 8. WELDMANAGEMENT DRAWINGS A WeldManagement drawing gives a view of a selected assembly or group of assemblies to give a visual representation of generated welds. It is only in a WeldManagement drawing that the Weld Manager, which is used for the creation, deletion and modification of welds and part connections, may be accessed. Creating a WeldManagement Drawing Choose ShipConstructor > Navigator to open Navigator. Select WeldManagement in the component list. Click the New button. Enter a name for the WeldManagement drawing and click OK. The WeldManagement Drawing will open automatically. 17

18 Note: Parts and assemblies may be unloaded or unloaded from the drawing at any time from the Weld Manager. Note: Parts and assemblies need not be loaded into the weld drawing in order to have welds generated for them. If welds are to be generated for a large assembly or a complete unit, it is recommended that fewer parts be loaded into the drawing, as weld generation can be a memory-intensive process. So the fewer loaded parts there are, the better the weld generation performance. Parts may be loaded after the weld generation is complete for visualization purposes. 9. UPDATE WELD DRAWINGS ShipConstructor WeldManagement drawings can be updated. Drawings that need updating can easily be identified in Navigator. Identifying Drawings that Require Updating WeldManagement drawings that required updating because the parts contained in the WeldManagement drawing have changed are identified in Navigator. To identify out-of-date WeldManagement drawings Choose ShipConstructor > Navigator to open Navigator. Select WeldManagement in the component list. Click the Show Out of Date button. Out of date WeldManagement drawings can be identified by the exclamation mark icon Updating an Existing WeldManagement Drawing WeldManagement drawings that are out of date can be updated instead of re-created. This lets you preserve all the customization work done on a WeldManagement drawing, as only the modified geometry of the parts is modified. To update a WeldManagement drawing Choose SC WeldManagement > Update Drawing to start updating the drawing. ShipConstructor determines all parts that need to be updated. The Modified Part Information window appears. You can use the Modified Part Information window to inspect parts that have changed during this update. Click OK to finish the drawing updating. 18

19 10. WELD MANAGER The Weld Manager is the main control center for creating and modifying all welds in a project. The Weld Manager is only accessible while in a WeldManagement drawing. It can be used to generate welds for any assemblies within the current unit, whether they are loaded into the WeldManagement drawing or not. The Weld Manager is opened by clicking on the Weld Manager icon, or by typing SCWELDMAN at the command prompt, while in a WeldManagement drawing. The left-most panel of the Weld Manager contains a product hierarchy tree with limited functionality. Parts can be loaded or unloaded from the drawing using this tree, and parts that are selected in the tree will be automatically selected in the drawing and vice versa. Parts that are loaded in the current WeldManagement drawing will appear with a lit bulb next to them, and all parts that are not loaded will appear with a grey bulb. Drag and drop functionality for reassigning parts to new assemblies is disabled in the Weld Manager, and new assemblies may not be created, nor can assemblies be removed. The top-right panel shows the connections list. Connections between parts are generated when welds are generated for the first time. Connections between parts will be displayed in this panel when their parent assembly is selected in the product hierarchy tree. Connections may also exist between two assemblies, or between a part and an assembly. The bottom-right panel shows the welds list. This is where standards can be assigned to generated welds. Welds are always assigned to a connection, so to view a specific weld the desired connection must be selected in the connections list. This will display all of the welds assigned to that connection in the welds list. 19

20 Generating Welds for an Assembly In the product hierarchy tree, select the assemblies which are to have welds generated. Click the right mouse button, and select Generate Welds from the popup menu. The Weld Manager state must be saved at this point, so select yes when prompted to save. Since weld generation can be a long process, there is a chance that the operation could be interrupted before it has Note: a chance to complete. If this happens, the welds that were generated before the interruption will be saved and do not need to be generated again. Instead, follow the same instructions as above, but in step 2 select Continue Generating Welds from the popup menu. This will continue the generation operation from where it left off the first time. Once complete, select the assembly to view all of the generated connections between parts or assemblies at this level. Click on any sub-assemblies to view connections at those levels as well. The connections should display the parts or assemblies involved, as well as the status of the connection. Click on a connection in the connections list to view welds that are assigned to that connection. Connections between two parts should have a single weld assigned to them by default. Connections between assemblies may have multiple welds assigned to them, since there may be multiple points of contact between parts in those assemblies. Updating Welds for an Assemblies If welds for a certain assembly have been generated and then parts within that assembly are altered or removed in a model drawing, that assembly will be marked as out-of-date and will have an exclamation mark symbol placed over it in the product hierarchy view. The welds for this assembly may be updated as follows: In the product hierarchy tree, select the assemblies which are to have welds updated. Click the right mouse button, and select Update Welds from the popup menu. The Weld Manager state must be saved at this point, so select yes when prompted to save. Once complete, the welds will have been updated to reflect the current state of parts in the assembly. Welds that are no longer needed will be deleted, new part connections will have welds generated for them, and weld lengths will be updated. Creating a weld with a user-defined Weld Path When welds are generated using the procedure described in the previous section, the weld path will be automatically generated based on the overlapping sections of the two parts involved. However, if the user wants to specify the weld path for a given weld, this can be done as follows Draw a Polyline or Curve along the path that you would like to define as the Weld Path. Multiple lines may be associated with a single Weld. Click the "Assign Weld Path" button above the Connections table. At this point, you are prompted to select two parts in the drawing. Exactly two structure parts must be selected. After they are selected, press the Enter key. Next, select the polylines or curves which are to make up the weld path and press the enter key. This process will generate a new weld with the defined weld path. This weld can be found in the weld table along with all other generated welds. It is distinguished from the other welds by the checkmark in the User Defined column of the welds table. Welds that are marked as User Defined will not be overwritten during a weld generation operation on their parent assembly unless the user specifies that they are to be overwritten. Copying existing Welds 20

21 There may be situations where a single connection may have multiple welds assigned to it. For instance, two parts may have multiple welds between them (a different type for each side, for example). Or, if a connection is between two assemblies, then there may be multiple parts within those assemblies which require welds between them. In this case, a weld for each part pair must be assigned. If a connection between two parts or assemblies has already been generated, but additional welds are required on that connection, this can be done as follows: Select the appropriate connection from the connections list. Then select the weld to be copied in the Welds Table Click the Copy Weld button above the Welds table. A new weld will be created, which can be seen in the welds list as long as the current connection is selected. This Weld will be marked as User Defined as described in the previous section. The new weld will not copy the original weld's standard. The new weld will not automatically have a Weld Tag. You will need to save and re-open the Weld Manager to see its Weld Tag. Defining Weld Properties Once a weld has been created, it is ready to be assigned a weld standard. This will determine which weld symbols will be displayed in the assembly drawing, indicating the types of welds involved in that assembly. Other properties can also be assigned at this step. Select a weld from the welds list. Open the Select Weld Standard window either by clicking on the Standard button, or by double-clicking on the Weld Standard cell of the selected weld. The Select Weld Standard window looks just like the Weld Schedule created in Manager. Select the desired weld standard from this table, paying attention to the scenario where the standard is located. The same standard may be used in several scenarios, but not all of those scenarios may be appropriate for this particular weld Click the OK button to close the Select Weld Standard window. The Weld Standard, as well as all scenario information (Location, Welded Members, and Minimum Thickness) will be filled in for this weld. Further properties such as Position, Status, and Validity can be set manually here. Placing check marks in the All Around and Field Weld cells will modify the weld symbol appropriately to include these indicators. Notes may be added to the Notes cell, if this weld requires any specific instructions. All of the above properties may alternatively be set by selecting a weld from the weld list, and then clicking the Properties Note: button. This brings up a window which may also be used to set the properties described in this section. Setting properties in this window will give the same results as setting them as in the above steps. Displaying Welded Parts To simplify the visualization of a given weld, it is possible to hide all parts in the drawing that are not associated with that weld. Select the desired weld in the welds list. Right-click on the weld in the list, and select Display Only Welded Parts from the popup menu. Alternatively, click the Display Welded 21

22 button while the desired weld is highlighted in the list. This will cause all parts in the drawing to become hidden, except for the two parts involved in the selected weld, and the weld object that joins them. To restore all hidden parts, click the Display All button, or select Display All Parts from the right-click menu. Viewing the Weld Paths Welds are generated during the weld generation step, however they are not made visible in the drawing immediately. Welds for a given assembly can be viewed as follows: Select the desired assembly in the product hierarchy view. Welds will be displayed for all parts and sub-assemblies belonging to this selected assembly. Right-click on the selected assembly in the product hierarchy and select Display Welds in Drawing from the popup menu. The Weld Manager must be saved at this point, so click yes when prompted to save in order to continue. View the parts in the weld drawing. Weld production objects have been generated to represent welds between parts. 1 WELD SYMBOL LABELS Weld objects displayed in production drawings can be labeled from the corresponding BOM. This allows users to determine the various properties for a specific weld. However, the best source of information for a weld is its "weld symbol". This consists of the weld's weld standard, along with other features, such as the Field Weld and All Around values. The weld symbol image is standardized across the industry, allowing users to instantly identify the various properties of a weld. A weld symbol label consists of an image of the weld standard assigned to the weld, a circle if the All Around property is set, a flag if the Field Weld property is set, and a leader line pointing from the weld standard to its associated weld object. Creating Weld Symbol Labels Weld symbol labels are valid only for welds that have weld standards, and can be created only after a weld object is inserted into a production drawing. To create a weld symbol label Choose Labeling > Weld Symbol Label from the Production ribbon tab. Select a weld to label: Select a weld object (or a weld output object in a MarineDrafting view) to label. The selected weld must have a weld standard assigned to it. Weld objects will be highlighted when moused over. In paperspace, the weld must be selected in a viewport. Specify label position: A jig will display the weld symbol label. Place the label in the desired location. Copying Weld Symbol Labels Lets you create symbol labels that are copies of an existing symbol label with the contents changed to reflect the weld standard of the selected part. The copied symbol label will be updated to display the weld standard of the selected weld, but will have the same leader line as the source label. To copy a weld symbol label Choose Label > Copy Label Select the source label: Select the weld symbol label to copy. Select a part: Select a weld object to label. The selected weld must have a weld standard assigned to it. The selected point will be the position where the arrow points to and all other geometry information will be copied from the source label. Press Esc at anytime will end the labeling. Editing Weld Symbol Labels 22

23 Weld symbol labels can be modified to display different states that indicate how the weld is to be welded. For example, if a weld is labeled with the arrowhead pointing to the other side of the weld, then the weld processes above the centerline need to be flipped. Modifying weld symbol labels is done via its grip points. In the image below, there are five grip points. The three square grip points are for movement. The arrow point will change where the symbol label is pointing (but not move the symbol label). The other end of the leader line will move the symbol (but not move the arrowhead). The midpoint grip point will move the entire object. The two triangle grip points are for changing how the symbol label is displayed. The grip point above the flag in this image will toggle to which end of the centerline the leader line to the arrow is connected, thereby changing the tail end as well. The weld processes are not changed. However, the other triangle grip point, above the midpoint, will toggle the weld processes onto the opposite side. Weld symbol labels are created using the drawing's current multileader style. This can be changed in the properties window. The weld symbol will update to reflect the values of the new multileader style: arrowhead icon, scale, line colors, leader line dogleg length, etc. The AutoCAD commands (such as MLEADEREDIT) for editing multileaders will not work on weld symbol labels and will display an error message to the command line. 1 WELDMANAGEMENT DRAWING OPTIONS WeldManagement drawings have drawing options that can affect how weld production objects are displayed in WeldManagement drawings. These options can be defined in the template drawing beforehand. Any WeldManagement drawing created using the template drawing will inherit those settings. Weld production objects may also appear in Assembly drawings, so the drawing options are also available in Assembly drawings. The Weld Manager Drawing Options is opened by typing SCDWGOPTIONSWELD at the command prompt, while in a WeldManagement drawing, or the command in either the ribbon or the menu. 23

24 Weld Production Object Radius Weld production objects use a per-drawing setting to manage their radius. This value can be defined in the WeldManagement template drawing. To modify the weld production object radius Open the WeldManagement Display Options window. Change the value of "Weld Radius". Click OK to close the window. The production objects will automatically resize to use the new radius. Weld Production Object Color The weld production objects also have their color managed by the drawing options. There are 3 values. Weld Standard use the color of the Weld Standard assigned to the weld. If no Weld Standard has been assigned, use the color of the Weld Entity option instead. Weld Status - use the color of the Weld Status of the weld. Weld Entity - use the color as defined by AutoCAD (the TrueColor property). To modify the weld production object color Open the WeldManagement Display Options window. Change the value of "Weld Color Type". Click OK to close the window. The production objects will automatically change color to use the setting. Modifying the color assigned to either a weld standard or a weld status will cause all welds that use that it to be marked as out-of-date. The production drawings will need to be updated in order for the weld production objects to use the new color. 24