Hi,

I'm struggling to find a reliable method of getting Simulation to calculate weld size for beams (structural members) welded to other beams and also beams to solids. I understand that Simulation makes heavy use of shell mesh to calculate weld size but that doesn't suit geometry such as an I-Beam or RHS members. I try to make as much use of beam mesh's as possible for quick processing times and it is extremely useful when designing structural frames which use a lot of I Beam type profiles. When using RHS or SHS the corner treatment is often 'mitre'd' and 'joints' in simulation go a little crazy when I try to convert them to shells. I understand that the software needs to get reaction forces at an edge rather than a surface and it uses something like the throat shear method to calculate the weld size, but surely it can use the reaction forces at the end of a beam/structural member to do the same calculation?

Is there a method that can be used to get Simulation to calculate the weld size in the above scenarios? Do I have to somehow convert the beams to shells then somehow connect them?

It seems a big let down that the edge weld connector can only handle extremely simple restricted scenarios like a piece of round tube (converted to a shell mesh) welded to a base plate (solid mesh) as I've seen in the SolidWorks Simulation book I got from the course.

Surely the boffin's at SolidWorks saw this question coming when introducing the edge weld connector?

Thanks

Ben