I'm looking for some advice - here is the situation :

I have completed my model, with about 150 parts, modeled to actual finished sizes.
I now need to create drawings that show extra material in places that need to be machined.
As well, I need drawings that show pre-welding machining.
I can use the actual part model for a welding drawing.
And the finish machining drawing should be no problem, as that is how I modeled it.

A simple example would be a fabricated pipe spool, with the 2 flanges and the pipe in between.
In this situation I would need the following drawings -

Flanges-
Burning drawing for oxy-acet cutting, with larger OD and thickness than finished size
Pre-Welding drawing showing a female spigot bored to center the pipe

Pipe-
Pre-Welding drawing showing the male spigots that will fit the flanges

Welding drawing of assembly showing weld symbols, etc

Finish machining drawing of assembly showing finished sizes, bolt holes etc.

So assuming that the flanges are the same, that makes 5 drawings.

If there is an accepted convention for doing this with 3d cad, what is it ? If not, any suggestions ?

I'm pretty new to Viacad, and 3d modeling. Will something like the select mask tool help here ? Each part is on it's own layer or sub-layer, should I add another sub layer for burnouts, another sub layer for pre-welding, and so on ?

I realize all this stuff is not normally part of the deal with designers, it's usually left to the manufacturer to decide on what the raw material will look like, how to prepare parts for welding, etc, but in this case I am both designer, engineer, and manufacturer, and I am trying to streamline the manufacturing process by having a totally complete set of drawings.

Any thoughts/insight is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Ryan

Larry
How do you make that work with the model ? Do you make 5 different models, 1 for each operation, or only 5 sheet views, and manually modify the sheet views ? I am a manufacturer, and typically when a customer gives me a drawing it is of the finished part, and it is up to me to figure out raw materials and machining/welding/heat treat procedures. Of course I have to make drawings of all those operations, based on the finished part drawing I have been provided.

What I am trying to do here is figure out how to use masks or hiding attributes within the model to generate the sheet views that I require. I'm not sure if I am going to have to create another sub layer for each burnout drawing, showing the finished part with material added on the OD and thickness (to use the flange example) for instance, or if I can add that material directly to the finish modeled part, and then suppress it. Is this the way to go, or is there a better way ?

Thanks
Ryan

Jason,

Parts would change when I need to design a new machine, but they would be pretty simple changes, and the way things are going, every month or so.

Information needed is as follows :
dxf/dwg for burning raw materials
2d sheet view for pre-welding machining
2d sheet view for welding
2d sheet view for finish machining

Associativity is not critical, but would come in handy sometimes, and as I understand it, once you flatten, you can't go back, except to make a new sheet view.

Multiple files of sub-assemblies would work, except for the above mentioned modifications. Every time I created a new machine, I would have to get the file and copy it into the machine model, thus losing the ability to modify (I haven't found a way to copy assemblies with history, only single parts). I would then have to check for interference, and then go back to the original file and modify to fix the interferences, then re-copy and bring it back to the new machine model.

The main reason I am asking about this in the first place is that I was worried about running out of layers. 150 finished parts + say 100 burnouts + 100 pre-welding = 350 sheet views, not including welding or assembly sheets. Since each sheet view takes 4 layers, that's 1400 layers just for the sheet views.

I was thinking of putting the burnout models, pre welding models, and finish machining models under separate layers/sublayers, so that when I selected the entire assembled machine, and modeled to sheet, I would get the sheet views that I need. Then I realized that Viacad 2d/3d only supports 1200 layers, and was looking for a way around this. However, I just did a model to sheet that created 1400 layers, just to see what would happen, and it worked.

Is the 1200 layers that the manual says true, or does that mean 1200 main layers, and infinite sub-layers ? Am I going to run into problems now that my model has 1550+ layers ?

I realize I don't need to model dxf/dwg to sheet, just to send to the burners, but I like having a big file of hardcopies for each project, and annotation on those drawings is a good thing if anything ever goes wrong.

Again, any thoughts/insight/advice/insults are very much welcome.

Thanks
Ryan

Hi Ryan
To keep things simple if it's not paths for cnc I would annotate a part for the welders in the case of a spool flange assembly and make a layer as you call it "burn dimensions". Next a layer called "welded assembly dimensions" and in the case of the spool the inside distance between the flanges smaller than finished machine size that being the case, and finally a layer for finish machining. Like this you don't have to tamper with the finished drawings but you'll have to manually place the dimensions numbers for the diameters of the flange for the burn for example and increase the number so that the parts clean up.
When it's time to print it's just a matter of turning layers on and off according to what part of the process you need to express.
Viacad has lots of tools to thicken and offset surfaces and of course scaling if you have to make solids for each phase of fabrication.
Good luck to you Ryan
Chuck

Kevin, Chuck,

This is exactly what I am getting at. The way I have the model configured currently is to have separate layers for solids with burning dimensions, pre-weld machining, welding, and finish machining. This of course takes up a large amount of layers, and I was worried about running out. However it seems like the 1200 layers that the manual says is the limit, is not in fact the limit.

I am creating the model to finished sizes, then duplicating with history the parts that are made from burnouts, putting them in the appropriate layer, and modifying the solids with the feature editor. Then duplicate that part with history, modifying to create the pre-welding geometry, and placing it in the appropriate layer. Then create another layer for assembly/welding, grab all the pre-welding parts, and place them in that layer.

This (I hope) will allow me to use the model to sheet tool on the whole machine assembly to create the 2d manufacturing drawings that I require, without manually modifying the 2d drawings, thus avoiding the possiblilty of mistakes (i.e. forgetting to add burn allowance and end up with the part burned to finish size, or forgetting to remove the burn allowance for finish machining)

I was hoping for a better way, as there are lots of solids to modify, but perhaps I just have to bear down and get through it.

I have a couple of questions relating to how to do this more efficiently, but I will post in a new thread.

Thanks for everybody's input.
Ryan

Thanks Tim