Weld factor rules

Weld factor rules are used to automatically determine the weld throat height. The system uses a weld factor rule to automatically to determine the throat height for a bevel only if the Automatic option is selected in Weld tab for that particular bevel type. Bevel properties can be defined in System Management > Construction > Welds/Bevels > Predefined Bevels.

• Weld factor rules can also be created in the System Management application using the function Construction > Welds/Bevels > Weld Factor Rules. For more information, see Defining rules in System Management.
• General information on creating rules files can be found in Rule configuration files.

A weld factor describes the relation between throat height of a weld, and the thickness of the plates: when welding two plates, the weld factor multiplied by the thickness of the thinner plate is the throat height. The weld factor usually depends on the welded material and the demands which the weld should satisfy.

Variables in weld factor rules

The properties from the logistical data, such as thickness or material, can be used as variables in the weld factor rules for parts that are welded together. Postfixes _1 and _2 in the property names indicate whether they are for the first or the second construction part that are to be welded together. The first part is the one that the weld belongs to, and the second part is the one that gets connected to the part containing the weld. See Variables (keywords) in weld configuration files for more information.

The files containing the weld factor rules must be named weldfactor####.cfg where #### is an integer in the range 0001 - 9999. The file name must contain the zeros when the number of the file is less than 1000. These files are stored in the <project>\norms\cvar\weld folder.

Below are two examples of weld factor rule configuration files. First, weldfactor0001.cfg determines which file to call, depending on the thickness of the first plate. In this case, a thickness of 8 was used, so weldfactor1000.cfg is called. If the thickness did not match any of the conditional statements, then a default weld factor of 0.13 would be used. For an example, the second plate has a thickness of 8 as well, so a weld factor of 0.31 would be returned. This value is then used to automatically return a throat height value of 2.48.

Note: The first line in the file is treated always as a title ("Main weld factor rule" in the first example below). Without the title line, the first conditional lines would be ignored.

File name: weldfactor0001.cfg

Main weld factor rule

Thickness_1== 8 $ weldfactor1000

Thickness_1== 9 $ weldfactor1001

Thickness_1== 10 $ weldfactor1002

Thickness_1== 11 $ weldfactor1003

Thickness_1== 12 $ weldfactor1004

0.13

File name: weldfactor1000.cfg

Secondary rule if thickness_1 is 8

Thickness_2== 8 $ 0.31

Thickness_2== 9 $ 0.32

Thickness_2== 10 $ 0.33

Thickness_2== 11 $ 0.34

Thickness_2== 12 $ 0.35

0.13