The weldments feature in Solidworks often does not have the tube standard you want to use for your design. Here's how you can make your own!

Step-by-step guide

Once you understand the dimension of the tube end that you want to use for your chassis (thickness, outer diameter), you can begin to make the profile in Solidworks.

Start a new part, and create a new sketch on the top plane.
Draw and define your tube end.
Save it somewhere temporarily.

From here, we need to create folders for your custom tube to save in, so that Solidworks can call on it as a library file.

Locate your Weldments Profile folder in Solidworks.^{More Info Below}
1. The vast majority of people will have this folder located in: C:\Program Files\SOLIDWORKS Corp\SOLIDWORKS\lang\english\weldment profiles
2. You most likely need admin (short for administrator) to save things in this folder, here is a useful thread to get around that:
  https://www.tenforums.com/user-accounts-family-safety/14573-windows-10-not-allowing-save-certain-folders-admin-account.html

From here forward, you will make two folders, each of which are inside the previous one.

Create a Standard folder (name it Midnight Sun) with in the weldment profiles folder.
1. The name of this folder will show up as the standard (in place of ANSI, ISO) when selecting your custom weldment profile.
Create a Type folder within the Standard folder.
1. The name of this folder will show up as the type (in place of rectangular tube, round tube, etc.) when selecting your custom weldment profile.

Now, go back to your saved sketch and open it.

Save the sketch as a library feature part (choose Lib Feat Part from the Save as Type drop-down, or save as ) in the Type folder you created, and name it according to the Size of the tubing (referencing OD, and thickness).
1. This file name will show up in the Size drop-down when selecting your custom weldment profile.

Ta-Da! You should now be able to select your custom weldment when using the structural member feature in Solidworks.

You can find where your weldments folder (or any Solidworks folder) is located by using the options tab at top of the window.

Navigating to the file locations tab on the left hand side, clicking the "Show folders for:" drop-down dialogue, and selecting Weldment Profiles.

Related articles

Page:

Creating Custom Weldments in Solidworks
Page:

General Engineering

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