SOLIDWORKS Weldment Trim Order

On creating multiple groups in a single SOLIDWORKS Weldment Structural Member feature, you can adjust the Trim Order to indicate which group comes first (isn’t trimmed) then how subsequent groups are trimmed.  In this example we’ll look at corner location with 3 members coming together.

If you create a single group of two segments, they will have a mitered corner by default with ‘Apply corner treatment’.  This can be changed to end butt variations as well.

SOLIDWORKS Weldment Single Group Corner Treatment

When you add another group of the vertical segment, by default Group2 will be trimmed based on the first group.  Hence Group1 will still have the mitered corner and Group2 will trim around both lower tubes.  You can access the Corner Treatment pop-up window by clicking on the pink dot at the corner.

SOLIDWORKS Weldment Group Trim Order

You’ll notice that the Trim Order lines up with the Group order.  Therefore it’s best to make groups in the order of required trimming selections.  You can change the Trim Order of groups after the fact by selecting the Group in the Corner Treatment pop-up and use the up/down arrows of the Trim Order.  For example if I change Group1 to Trim Order 2, and vice versa with Group2, it’s essentially the same as if you selected the vertical line for Group1 first.

SOLIDWORKS Weldment Trim Order Switched

If you set the Trim Order for all groups to the same order, this will trigger all members to be mutually trimmed.

SOLIDWORKS Weldment Trim Order the same for all groups

If we set all three segments as separate groups, you now have three Trim Orders.

• Trim Order 1 is not trimmed
• Trim Order 2 is trimmed from Trim Order 1
• Trim Order 3 is trimmed by Trim Order 1 & Trim Order 2

SOLIDWORKS Weldment Individual Trim Order

SOLIDWORKS Weldment Individual Trim Order