I have a weldment that I need to specify the size and location of the weld beads for our machine operators. I've created the beads using the Weld Bead feature, and this is what my model (or part of it) looks like:
Now I'm trying to create a drawing with all the details for our welders, but the weld beads themselves do not appear in the drawing. Only the weld symbols show (after importing model items), as seen here:
This is a problem because, among other reasons, the beads on this weldment are not spaced evenly. I need for our welders to be able to easily (and visually) discern the size and location of the each individual bead.
The way my company has handled this in the past is to create unique bodies for each weld bead and mate them where desired in the assembly, but I feel there has to be a better way to do this using Solidworks' built-in features. I know that I can get the beads to show in a drawing if I use the Fillet Bead feature on a multi-body part, but I believe that feature isn't available for assemblies. In addition the options for that feature are more limited, for instance not allowing me to choose a start point offset from the edge.
So it seems clear to me that weld bead is the feature I need to use, I just can't see if there's a way to visually represent the beads on the drawing. (I know I can toggle the beads' visibility on the 3D model in the Hide/Show menu, but can't find a corresponding feature in the drawing.) Can anybody help?
SolidworksDrawings And Detailing