Introduction

In the normal course of drawing with SpoolFab, the welds will be arranged in the order in which they are drawn, as shown in the example below.

‍Setting Custom Weld Numbers

‍Sometimes an owner requires welds to be numbered in some specific way. If you are going to change the order of welds, be sure to do it BEFORE you add any welder ID or weld date information. The first step to customizing the order is to use Shift-F11 to bring up the information dialog, then choose Weld Information.

Each weld’s properties are listed in a column on the Weld Information grid as shown below. Using clicks and/or arrow keys, move the focus to the weld you want to be first in the new order. A blue circle on the drawing indicates which weld has the focus.

Suppose you want the current weld 6 to be the first weld. Move the focus to column 6 and press F3. This weld is moved to the start of the lineup, i.e. it is now in the first column, and it is highlighted in yellow.

Now press the right arrow to move the focus to Weld 5, and press F3 again.

The former Weld 5 becomes the second weld. Select the remaining welds in whatever order is desired. Continue until the welds are in the desired order. If you make a mistake, press F2 to shorten the ordered group by one, then continue with F3 to select the next weld.

When done, close the Weld Information window. Be sure to resave the drawing if you want to keep your changes.

‍Consecutive Numbering

‍If you already created the Weld Map, you may want to erase it with Edit/Welds/Erase Weld Map. Then press Ctrl-T to bring up the weld window, which is shown below.

If you enter 1234 as the first weld tag and then hit the Repeat key, the next weld will be labeled 1235, 1236 and so on.

For more on consecutive weld numbering, see K0025.