Universal Method for Welded Sheet Metal Assemblies

Multi-part, welded hollow beams made of sheet metal are very torsionally rigid and have a high section modulus — you find them as the arm of an excavator, or as a longitudinal beam in trucks, ships, and oil rigs. This exercise shows a universal method for designing them, so that all sheet metal parts fit together precisely, even after major changes.

You will learn how to create a Master Solid that controls the geometry of the whole assembly, using Move Edge, Draft, and Mirror Geometry. Based on this Master Solid, the individual sheet metal bodies are created with Offset and Thicken, including the correct bend radii, and overlaps between non-perpendicular panels are resolved with the Intersect option.

The tutorial then shows how to distribute the sheet metal bodies into separate part files with the WAVE Geometry Linker, how to convert them into true sheet metal parts, and how to add the linked bodies to the Reference Set Model. Finally, you will see how to add subsequent, joint machining directly at assembly level, without changing the individual parts.