Appearance of Weld Bead

[Scary99]

I have added fillet welds to an assembly.  I have learned to use the fillet and groove commands to place the welds.  The fillet appears as a flat smooth surface making it difficult to distinguish from the parent surfaces.  Can I give the weld surface a "beaded" appearance to look like an actual weld?

[mdavis22569]

you want the "dime stacking" effect in the 3d model?

You could with making it once and patterning it, but that will add a lot of data and lines to your model and 2d if you do it that way.

It was more for looks, or is it needed? 

I tend to not even use the welds, unless it's a stitch weld, so they see what I'm wanting and where , but that's me..

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi Scary99,

I did this a few years back, it might help you out a bit.

Cheers

Mark

Inventor 2016

[Scary99]

It is only for appearance.  I am a student and looking to explore some of the tools Inventor offers.  I agree that placing the "weld" is not required and sometimes can obscure details of the parts.  Where do I find the command to add the "ripples" or "stacked dimes" that look more like an actual weld?

[Scary99]

That is exactly what I am looking for . . . . did not realize how much work is involved.  I will give it a shot anyway.  Still learning and it will give me some practice using various commands.  This is only for looks . . . just curious as to how it is done.  Thanks for the info.

[SBix26]

Hmmm... when I (rarely) place a weld in a weldment model, I get the caterpillar appearance automatically.  I wonder why it's not happening for yours?

Sam B

Inventor Professional 2017 R2
Vault Basic 2017.0.1
Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit, SP1
Inventor Certified Professional

[-niels- · Accepted solution]

Like Sam i also get the caterpillar automatically, but it depends on the material i choose for the weldment when i convert the assembly.

There are a few standard materials that have "weld" in the name that have the caterpillar as a texture, so maybe the material that was used was one without this texture....?

[Scary99]

The assembly is stainless steel and the weld I selected is of course stainless steel.  Perhaps this is why I am getting a smooth surface.  I will try different filler metals to see if it makes a difference.  Thanks for the input.

[Scary99]

The assembly is stainless steel and the weld I selected is of course stainless steel.  Perhaps this is why I am getting a smooth surface.  I will try different filler metals to see if it makes a difference.  Thanks for the input.

[-niels- · Accepted solution]

That may be the cause then...
If you want to change the material for the weld after having converted the assembly, you need to right-click on "welds" and select the iProperties > Physical tab where you have the material dropdown.

[Scary99]

I just changed the material from stainless steel to aluminum and the contours appeared on the welds. I then changed the parent material back to stainless and left the weld metal as aluminum keeping the contours.

[Sezal]

Try Looking at the appearance panel in the view tab and turn on the textures option. 

[mwalzXV3Q9]

Hi,

    Did you ever get this figured out where you wanted the weld bead to be elevated above the surface like it is in the real world? I am doing basically a butt weld, chamfered out the edges and then did a groove weld and got the weld "appearance" but it's smooth to the surface, but that's not what its like in the real world, should be a half round/oval above the part. does it on fillet welds. Please let me know. Thanks