Model based weld beads for fillet, groove, and cosmetic welds can have associated welding symbols. You can create them when you create a weld feature, or you can also create them in a separate operation.
They are created and positioned based on the drafting standard and the options you specify while creating the welding symbol. Welding symbols for fillet welds can be associatively linked to the bead. When linked, the fillet welding symbol values are populated by values in the associated bead feature.
You choose the symbol to use, its layout, and the components to include in the symbol.
Each welding symbol has two segments: a horizontal reference segment and a leader segment. The horizontal segment contains the text and weld symbols. The leader segment attaches to the horizontal segment on one end and to a model edge on the other. The appearance of welding symbols is specified in the Weld Symbol style.
As components move and rotate, the associated horizontal portion of the welding symbol remains parallel to the graphics window, while the leader segment adjusts. The leader start point of the segment always remains attached to the associated model edge.
Welding symbol leader start points automatically update when model edges are affected by post-weld machining features .
Once created, you can edit any element in the welding symbol. You can also reposition the welding symbol and adjust the length of the leader segment. When repositioning, the reference segment remains normal to the screen. Additional vertices can be added to the leader to better position it. When you edit a weld symbol, you can change the weld features included in the symbol.
For welding symbols associated with fillet weld beads, some values are linked and cannot be edited. To change the values, you must break the association with the fillet bead. In the Welding Symbol dialog box, in the Fillet Linking box, select None. You can then change values in the welding symbol.
To edit the content and layout of existing welding symbols, select the weld feature to edit in the browser, right-click, and then select Edit Feature. When the Weld Feature dialog displays, you can use it to:
Click and drag grip points to reposition the reference segment or leader start point of the welding symbol. Use the Feature Select command to display the grip points for a selected welding symbol.
Text strings generated for model welding symbols follow the same set of standards-based rules as 2D welding symbols added in drawings.
The content and appearance of welding symbols is identical with the symbols in the drawing dialog, except that all model weld symbols are parametric. Parametric fields have full expression evaluation capabilities. These parametric fields, which do not affect the cosmetic weld bead, can be changed at any time while editing a weld feature in the model.
In a fillet model welding symbol, you can set up or break associative linking. This capability is not available for other weld types or in drawings. In a drawing, welding symbols can be added, deleted, and edited until you close the dialog box and click Done.
Both cosmetic and solid fillet welding symbols from the model can be brought into a drawing. You determine which symbols to bring over and the view to place them in. Once symbols are brought into a drawing, you can move, hide, show, and delete the symbols in the drawing environment. You can change symbol format and display attributes, but cannot edit symbol values in the drawing.
To retrieve model welding symbols, right-click a drawing view in which the symbols would be visible, and select Get Model Annotations, and then select Get Welding Symbols.
Symbols brought into a drawing are associated with model geometry. When changes are made to the model in the weldment assembly or the drawing, the symbols updates accordingly.