How do you model your frames?

[Shmeefer]

I thought the weldments feature in SW would generate a cut list?

[standfast]

I do weldments in SW. I see no need to have seperate files. You just pull the measurements and angles off the frame part file. No big deal.

[minibajaman]

Originally Posted by standfast

I do weldments in SW. I see no need to have seperate files. You just pull the measurements and angles off the frame part file. No big deal.

That's what I do as well, but it's harder to make nice drawings that way. For people building the frame themselves, it shouldn't be a big deal. But if you were going to design the frame then send it out for fab, that may not be the best approach.

[UkraineTrain]

Originally Posted by minibajaman

That's what I do as well, but it's harder to make nice drawings that way. For people building the frame themselves, it shouldn't be a big deal. But if you were going to design the frame then send it out for fab, that may not be the best approach.

That's kind of my logic. I work with a guy that builds dragsters and he has his straight tubes fish-mouthed on a laser (which makes ungodly awesome cuts btw) so for stuff like that it's great to have individual files, or at least prints to give to the cutter.

[RickS.]

Even for my own personal use I prefer seperate drawing files for each piece.
My personal plans are all done this way. This really takes the guesswork out of making the parts. And it eliminates a ton of questions from other guys that want to build your stuff. All of the tricks and areas to watch out for are noted on each drawing. I think you should be able to pass the prints out to 25 different machinists and have it all go together when the parts come back. This is how it's done in machine tool design. Why should buggys be any different. Also if you decide to send drawings out for a quote they will need to be done in this way.

[IceFyre13th]

I do a main page showing the assembled frame, exploded view page, then parts pages. File save as a pdf (solidworks user BTW) and off to builder it goes

[umbaja2009]

I use Pro/Engineer 3 and 4 to model my frames. I model each tube as a thin protrusion and model the frame as all one part (not an assembly of tubes). Also, I have my tubes bent at an outside company so I have to create views of each bend with angles, bend radii and tube lengths. I simply hide the tubes I don't need (the way I draw the frame allows for this) and only create drawings of one tube. As for coping the tubes, I can trim two tubes in Pro/Engineer and it will create a cope.

[RickS.]

Go Blue!

[UkraineTrain]

I think I got the hang of it. I’m modeling everything in one file and then making a component for every individual tube that just references back to the parent assembly and has one linked body. So I make all my changes in one file and then all the components automatically update. Here’s what I have so far.

[wyattboche]

can also buy bend-tech pro. Just purchased my copy and so far love it. Anything that is made from tube this program can 3D can do.