Note that if members have been defined before exiting, you will first enter the second part of the feature, corner management. A ‘confirmation corner’ icon is available to exit the sub-environment. Primary members can then be defined, followed by secondary members. A sub-environment like when starting a sketch is entered. To start, the Structure System feature is selected from its own tab. Structural Systems requires configured profiles that are best setup using a design table Member Definition
See our blog here on how to create a configured profile. Make sure you have set yourself up with the correct type of profile before starting. However, if you are still using the profiles from 2018 and before, they will be non-configured. Since 2019, the weldment profiles provided with SOLIDWORKS are configured. Structure Systems has a prerequisite that the profiles need to be configured (the profile sizes are stored as configurations rather than separate part files). The first step is ensuring you have your profiles setup correctly. Let us go through what you can expect when setting up a Structure System. To show its potential, we shall use the above crane to demonstrate the tips and tricks. Large structures are therefore still manageable and easy to edit. Important parameters like the profile type and pierce location can be changed for an individual, several or all members at once. Locating a member’s definition and corners takes just a couple of intuitive clicks. Manipulating a large weldment structure is easier than ever as all members are stored in one feature.
This makes a feature tree full of manual trimming features a thing of the past.