Release notes

Added

• Custom names for Frame groups. Names are retained when reopening and editing the frame; renaming preserves existing geometry and dependent features.
• Illustrated tooltips for key commands and options, using bundled images.

Fixed

• Incorrect gusset placement on profile-to-plate joints, including supports inside assemblies.
• Gussets and linear patterns disappearing after editing frame profiles.
• Incorrect end-member alignment in 3D frames when using Frame plane.

• Added 229 Indian Standard profile sizes across SHS, RHS, CHS, ISA, ISMC, ISMB, NPB and WPB families, based on Tata Steel and SAIL catalogues.
• The new Indian sections include flange tapers and root/toe radii. Find them under Indian (IS) in the profile library; existing profiles and user customisations are preserved.

• Fixed component patterns disappearing after frame dimension or profile changes when an original member had been removed.
• Preserved member identity during profile changes, keeping Pattern and Remove operations linked to the correct members.
• Corrected replay order for recorded Trim / Extend, Miter and Notch operations after Edit Frame, before downstream patterns.
• Improved support-face recovery when editing gussets or rebuilding their frame.

• Improved in-place Frame and Gusset edits, including timeline handling and preservation of dependent component patterns.
• Recorded Trim / Extend, Miter and Notch operations are reapplied after Edit Frame.
• Cutting List counts each placed component instance, including repeated copies.
• Frame edit progress remains visible until rebuilding is complete and the timeline returns to the end.

• Gussets between crossing members stand upright in the corner instead of lying flat on the lower beam. This includes angled bars, pitched rafters and round tubes resting across a beam or pipe.
• Gussets on both sides of the same crossing are retained when the frame is edited.

Added

• Frame: Section orientation per group — Upright to Z (default) or Frame plane. Frame plane puts the section height in the plane of the frame; on a 3-D frame (for example a cart with an inclined handle) each member follows its own flat panel, so those corners close cleanly. A frame made with an earlier version opens in Edit with Upright to Z and is rebuilt only if you confirm; Cancel keeps it.
• Trim / Extend: Fit to target member runs the end into the picked member and cuts it to that member’s outer shape, closing the wedge a flat end leaves at a skew corner.
• Plate Tab / Slot: round parts — rings and holed plates around a tube, discs inside a tube, and tube ends standing on a flat face. Tabs are spaced evenly around a full circle and end flush with the curve.

Changed

• Edit Frame updates the frame in place: it keeps its component, name and timeline position, so sketches and joints on member faces keep working. Adding or removing members rebuilds it at its old place with its old name and position.
• Trim / Extend: a trimmed or extended end follows its target when a parameter moves it, between members made with Member, your own bodies and construction planes. Frame members, end caps, gussets and plates keep a fixed cut.
• Extend works on any end (square, mitred, skew or coped) and only adds material.

Fixed

• Butt corners between skew members no longer overlap, and coped cuts clear rounded corners.
• Extend no longer fails with “No end cap found” on an angled end, and no longer extends the wrong end.
• Trim / Extend works on members in moved, rotated or nested components.
• Frame and the other build commands no longer leave temporary features behind when the timeline marker is rolled back.

Added

• Plate Tab / Slot (Modify panel): rows of self-fixturing tabs along plate edges and matching slots in the parts they sit on. Works on any solid body — plates you modelled by hand, imported bodies, gussets, end caps, and frame members as the slotted part — in the root or in any component. Tabs by count or maximum spacing, flush or custom length, per-side clearance and round (dogbone) corner relief.
• Plate joints are recorded on the document and re-applied after Frame, Member, Gusset and End Cap edits. Slots cut into members count in the Cutting List like Tab / Slot holes.
• Plates to DXF (Manage panel): one flat R12 DXF in millimetres per unique gusset, end cap and flat plate you modelled yourself, plus plates_index.csv with quantity, thickness, size, mass and material. Plates carrying a Plate Tab / Slot joint are listed without picking them and get tab or slot in the file name.
• Plates to DXF lights up every listed plate in the model, and can write one DXF per plate, one per thickness (every piece side by side, plate names on a separate LABELS layer), or both.
• Cutting List takes the flat plates you modelled yourself: pick them in Other plates, and every plate carrying a Plate Tab / Slot joint is listed without picking it. They join the on-screen table, the PDF and the CSV with their size, thickness and quantity, measured by the same code as Plates to DXF.

Changed

• Cutting List groups gussets and end caps by their real flat shape, so a tabbed gusset is a separate row from a plain one of the same size.

Added

• Frame and Member pick tubes, pipes and angles by outer size first, then wall thickness, so the size list is short. “Other…” takes a wall the library does not have yet and saves it as a normal size.

Fixed

• Miter — both the command and a Frame corner override — cuts through the real outer and inner corners of the two sections, so a 60x40 rail and an 80x40 post close with nothing sticking out.
• Corner override is now available to a group with a single member when that corner is shared with another group, which is the only way to miter two different profiles.

Added

• Cutting List output units: mm, cm, m, inches (with 1/16-in fractions), or feet — CSV and PDF both. Defaults to the document’s unit and remembers your choice per unit system.

Fixed

• Cut sheet PDF: the header info line no longer overlaps a long title.

Fixed

• Vertical members in a vertical frame were swept with the section turned 90° from the rails, so same-group miters did not close.
• Short mitered or butted members (stair rails, small door frames) got a triangular notch at the corner.
• Edit frame did not detect sketch dimension changes; it now rebuilds when the sketch moved.
• Identical members could split into two cut-list rows at 90° rotations.
• Export CSV skipped custom (Profile from Sketch) profiles; Import CSV restores them.
• Miter corners are cut through the real corner of the two sections, so top/bottom-anchored members and two different widths (corner override) close.

Changed

• Section orientation follows the document’s up axis (Y-up or Z-up).
• Profiles and settings moved to a per-user folder (%APPDATA%\VanThanBK\Weldments on Windows, ~/Library/Application Support/VanThanBK/Weldments on macOS), so App Store updates no longer wipe custom profiles.
• Info can check for updates and download the newest build (licensed users).

Version 1.3.0 included grouped frames with miter / butt / coped joints and per-corner overrides, gussets, end caps, self-fixturing tab/slot joints, 616-size profile library with custom sketch profiles, CSV and PDF cutting lists.

Added

• Custom names for Frame groups. Names are retained when reopening and editing the frame; renaming preserves existing geometry and dependent features.

Fixed

• Incorrect gusset placement on profile-to-plate joints, including supports inside assemblies.
• Gussets and linear patterns disappearing after editing frame profiles.

• Added illustrated tooltips for key commands and options, using bundled images.
• Fixed incorrect end-member alignment in 3D frames when using Frame plane.

• Added 229 Indian Standard profile sizes across SHS, RHS, CHS, ISA, ISMC, ISMB, NPB and WPB families, based on Tata Steel and SAIL catalogues.
• The new Indian sections include flange tapers and root/toe radii. Find them under Indian (IS); existing profiles and user customisations are preserved.
• Updated Frame Check section properties to match the new Indian profile geometry, including rounded corners and flange tapers.
• Fixed component patterns disappearing after frame edits when an original member had been removed. Pattern and Remove operations retain member references, and recorded cuts replay before downstream patterns.

V-Notch & Fold

• Make a connected run of square or rectangular tube members from one notched tube. Preview the folded shape and export the straight tube to STEP or a new Fusion design from Cutting List.
• Set the outside bend radius, K-factor, weld gap, tab/slot and relief details, with individual corner overrides.
• Edit an existing Fold to restore its members and settings, change the selection or adjust individual corners.
• Closed frames retain a separate closing weld joint; the remaining corners become folds. Unsupported runs and settings show a reason in the dialog.
• Improved gusset support-face recovery after Frame and Gusset edits.

See the V-Notch & Fold overview for the workflow and supported profiles.

• Improved in-place Frame and Gusset edits, including timeline handling and preservation of dependent component patterns.
• Recorded Trim / Extend, Miter and Notch operations are reapplied after Edit Frame.
• Cutting List counts each placed component instance, including repeated copies.
• Frame edit progress remains visible until rebuilding is complete. Cutting List PDF and Frame Check operations restore the model view afterwards.

• Gussets between crossing members stand upright in the corner, including angled bars, pitched rafters and round tubes resting across a beam or pipe.
• Gussets on both sides of the same crossing are retained when the frame is edited.

Added

• Frame Studies (Fabricate panel): show any saved load case on the current frame, compare all cases side by side, combine cases with your own signed factors (for example 1.35D + 1.5L), and save calculated results as design versions to compare after changing the frame. Comparisons export to PDF and CSV with support reactions, an equilibrium check, uplift and span deflection.
• Frame Check point loads act straight down or along a signed global X, Y or Z axis, and a load picked off the member axis adds its offset moment (on by default).
• Plate Tab / Slot: round parts — rings and holed plates around a tube, discs inside a tube, and tube ends standing on a flat face. Tabs are spaced evenly around a full circle and end flush with the curve.

Changed

• Frame Check checks the deflection limit per span, and parts hanging from one post (arms, gates) as cantilevers; the largest displacement is still reported. A face load acts only over the part of the member the face covers, and a face off the axis also bends the member. Round tubes use combined bending. Frames in moved, rotated or repeated components are analysed where they sit.
• Frame Check dialog: Analysis model, Load cases and Save a version start collapsed, and support symbols point away from the member.
• Weld Bead builds a weld around a ring, disc, flange or tube end as one bead per run instead of hundreds of pieces, 3–5× faster. Existing beads change only when you run Weld Bead again.
• Edit Frame updates the frame in place: it keeps its component, name and timeline position, so sketches and joints on member faces keep working.
• Trim / Extend: a trimmed or extended end follows its target when a parameter moves it, between members made with Member, your own bodies and construction planes. Frame members, end caps, gussets and plates keep a fixed cut.

Fixed

• Weld Bead no longer freezes on a ring around a large tube, and no longer hangs Fusion when a corner radius is not larger than the weld size.
• Frame Check no longer joins members that only cross at a load or support; a brace ending up to 2 mm off a member is connected; connections no longer depend on build order; a duplicated member stops the check with a message.
• Trim / Extend works on members in moved, rotated or nested components, and Extend no longer carries an end past the target on some faces.
• Frame and the other build commands no longer leave temporary features behind when the timeline marker is rolled back.

• Frame: Section orientation per group — Upright to Z (default) or Frame plane; on a 3-D frame each member follows its own flat panel, so the corners of inclined panels close.
• Trim / Extend: Extend works on any end (square, mitred, skew or coped) and only adds material; the new Fit to target member closes the wedge a flat end leaves at a skew corner.
• Fixed overlapping butt corners between skew members and material left inside rounded corners by coped cuts.
• A Weldments Pro purchase on the Windows or the macOS listing unlocks the add-in on both platforms.

• Square, V and Bevel groove welds fill existing straight preparations or matching round and rectangular tube perimeters. Smooth, Textured and optional Rippled finishes are supported.
• Select a prepared groove face or lip edge. Auto measure detects the groove type, depth, root opening and bevel angle; measured values remain editable and reinforcement height stays manual.
• Improved supported curved and oblique fillet transitions, connected gusset tips and brace-to-rail seam detection. Unsupported spans remain identified in the schedule.
• Frame Check adds saved load cases, comparison on the current frame and a Model setup view for inspecting beam axes, nodes, loads and supports before solving. Results update when analysis inputs change.
• Recognition of supported thin-wall custom RHS, I, U/C, L and T sketch sections, with the assumptions and remaining torsion limits reported.
• Fixed repeated seam and bead preview regeneration caused by dialog feedback updates.

The version in Latest build identifies the bundle currently available to download.

Added

• Plate Tab / Slot (Modify panel): rows of tabs and matching slots between any solid bodies, including plates you modelled yourself, in any component. Joints are re-applied after Frame, Member, Gusset, End Cap and Base Plate edits.
• Weld Bead welds bodies where they sit in the assembly: parts inside moved, rotated or nested components, and each instance of a component placed several times, with Scope = Selected bodies. Plates you modelled yourself can be welded to each other and to frame members. Beads are created at the top level of the design: after moving a welded part, run Weld Bead again (Replace existing welds is on by default).
• Weld beads run as one continuous bead across Plate Tab / Slot tabs, including slots with round (dogbone) corner relief and plates next to ribs or cross plates. A tabbed plate welds the same length as the plate without tabs.
• Plates to DXF lights up every listed plate in the model, and the nested sheet DXFs carry the name of every plate on a separate LABELS layer.
• Cutting List takes the flat plates you modelled yourself: pick them in Other plates, and every plate carrying a Plate Tab / Slot joint is listed without picking it. They join the on-screen table, the PDF and the CSV with their size, thickness and quantity, measured by the same code as Plates to DXF.
• Plates to DXF and 2D nesting take flat plates you modelled yourself; plates joined with Plate Tab / Slot are listed without picking them and carry tab or slot in the file name.

Fixed

• Weld Bead: Replace existing welds now replaces only the welds between the same parts. Welding one group of parts after another kept deleting the earlier group’s beads; welds on other parts are now kept, and re-welding one joint leaves the rest of that weld run untouched.
• Frame Check refuses to answer for a frame the supports do not actually hold — a flat frame standing on two pinned feet can swing out of its own plane — instead of reporting a near-zero utilisation next to an impossible deflection. It names how much load is carried by nothing.

Weld modelling and Frame Check are the core Pro workflows: weld beads and schedules, plus member forces, beam stress and deflection reports. Weld cost, base plates, stock-bar plans, plate nesting and DXF support fabrication, alongside all Standard tools.

• Tab/Slot supports member-to-base-plate and gusset-to-member connections, with saved joint settings reapplied after supported edits.
• Continuous beads follow verified Tab/Slot reliefs; intermittent welds retain their intended stitch gaps. Smooth and Rippled use the same schedule quantities.
• Approximate deposited metal is marked with ~ and an estimate basis, so it can be included in Weld Cost. Unknown geometry does not become a zero quantity.
• Frame Check reports separate stress, deflection and Euler reference results, with explicit buckling review where compression is present.
• Progress feedback for longer calculations and exports, faster PDF text layout, clearer overview labels and updated report layouts.

Valve mating flanges, a larger library and a big-project test

• Add mating flanges for supported flanged and wafer valves: slip-on or weld-neck pipe flanges that follow the valve axis and bolt pattern, with a face allowance and a pipe setback or root gap. Tube lengths include their takeout, and editing one part updates the valve and both flanges.
• 851 stock sizes in 44 families. Where a size comes in several walls, pick Size and Thickness; Other... takes a wall that is not in the library yet.
• Your sizes, library packs, captured fittings, flange sizes and weld rates are kept outside the add-in folder, so updates keep them.
• A Paste New copy of a tube counts as one more of the same part in the Fabrication Package, under the same part ID.
• New fittings, valves, flanges and supports get their own display colours. These are Fusion appearances only, not materials.
• Notch Template turns the template sideways when that makes it fit one sheet; paper A4, A3, A2, Letter or Tabloid.
• Fixes from a 142-tube test: Bend Data and Weld Joints tables refresh when their filters and rates change; closed-loop routes work in Bend Data, Cutting List and the package; edits keep route numbers and component names; Auto Route checks obstacles where they are placed; fittings, flanges, supports and weld beads also work in Direct designs; the Fitting dialog keeps OK off while its preview fails and names the reason.
• Shown in Fusion as Tube and Pipe Routing, on the Tube and Pipe tab.

Pneumatic, BSP and sanitary connectors

• 23 manufacturer-referenced sizes: SMC KQ2 push-in unions, elbows and tees; GF BSP threaded couplings; and Alfa Laval sanitary weld ferrules.
• Tube cut lengths use the connector insertion depth or reference thread make-up automatically. Saved fittings restore the selected catalogue part when edited.
• Cutting List and Fabrication Package include manufacturer and part codes. Non-welded connector interfaces are excluded from Weld Joints; sanitary ferrules count only the pipe-side weld.
• Matching polyurethane tube and exact 16 ga sanitary tube sizes for these connectors.
• Improved connector placement at arbitrary orientations, incompatible-size checks, fitting previews and PDF layout.

Installation dimensions follow the linked supplier tables; outer details are simplified. BSP make-up is a reference value. Sanitary ferrules do not include clamps or gaskets. See the connector dimension sources.

Editable tube routes, standard and vendor fittings, obstacle routing, generic bend tables, cutting lists, fishmouth templates and pipe-joint weld estimates.

Current development additions

• Bender Setup: saved machine, die and material settings, measured angle compensation, die mark offsets and fixed setup revisions assigned to routes.
• Recognize Tube: bend and fabrication data from supported imported hollow round tubes, with source-geometry checks before export.
• Fabrication Package: one ZIP with stable part numbers, revisions, assembly quantities, cut-list and bend files, saved End A/B templates, an HTML index and a change list.
• 607 pipe and tube sizes in 27 families. Cutting List and package quantities include repeated and nested component instances.

Bend sheets, checks and a tooling library for Fusion sheet-metal parts

• Bend Sheet reads the Fusion flat pattern of one part or every sheet-metal part in the design: bends up and down at any angle, a suggested order (outer flanges first, same-direction bends grouped, short before long) that you can reorder, the back-gauge X of every step with the earlier flanges formed, and when to flip, turn or rotate the part.
• Auto tools + order tries the compatible punches and dies of the library, both back-gauge sides and other bend orders, and keeps the tools chosen for each step.
• Checks before the first hit: flange shorter than the die minimum, force against the die and machine ratings, part longer than the bed, holes too close to a bend, inside radius below the material minimum, formed flanges taller than the punch, short Z flanges, a flat made with other bend values, and a 2D section sweep with the punch, die, beam and back-gauge outlines. A check that cannot run is listed as not checked.
• Outputs per part: a bend sheet PDF (setup, flat pattern with numbered UP and DOWN bends, bend table, tools by step, checks and a side view of every step), a flat DXF with CUT, BEND, ETCH and NOTES layers, and a bend-program CSV.
• Apply Bend Rule makes the Fusion sheet-metal rule from your material, thickness, die and punch; Calibrate from Test Bend stores the measured bend deduction and K-factor for that material, thickness and die.
• Press Brake Library with eight machines, 38 punches, 87 dies and 23 materials from published catalogues and standards, including six UKB punches and dies with the maker's CAD sections in 415 and 835 mm lengths; tool outlines can be imported from DXF.
• Forms (louvers, lances, dimples, emboss and deboss forms, bridges, knockouts, extruded holes, beads and gussets) with Edit Form, Pattern Form and Audit Forms; Tab and Slot locating joints; Manufacturing Export with a Punch Map CSV and the flat DXF.

Read the user guide and the tool and CAD sources.

Edit hole positions and check linked hardware before source changes

• Edit Assembly Feature adds Replace hole centers: select the complete desired set and review saved/replacement counts and coordinates before OK. It provides selection feedback without temporary cut-solid geometry.
• Linked position edits retain the same direct source-file set. Retained axes keep their original point and direction references, including when a different reference is selected at the same old axis.
• Linked Hole Series Create and rebuild validate planned head/nut fit, screw length and engagement before source-file changes or cloud saves. Existing checks run again after reference updates.
• Size and head-treatment edits use the same recess defaults as Create. Head-only changes preserve explicit clearance and nut-pocket dimensions; supported inch hardware uses a counterbore instead of a countersink.
• Fixed false Changed audit results when a later managed operation updates the same linked source body. Unchanged managed features now retain consistent revision records after Update All and reopening the files.
• Update All reports successful completion when only warnings remain, while keeping those warnings visible for review.
• Batch Change filters managed connections by current size, with exact UNC/UNF choices. Labels show the connection name, size, treatments and scope.
• Select matching and Clear selection reduce repetitive picking. Preview reports selected, applicable and skipped records; changing the filter clears the selection.
• Existing override checks, linked-hardware updates and per-connection recovery remain in place.
• Local Hole Series, Fastener Stack and Assembly Cut replacements avoid repeatedly recomputing later timeline features during removal.
• Connection Library and Hardware BOM have distinct icons in Fusion and the product guide.
• Updated Help covers the Hybrid-parent linked-file workflow, all nine commands, current limitations and development roadmap. Linked jobs still save source files sequentially and cannot roll back all saved cloud versions as one transaction.

Read the current user guide for supported document types and linked-file requirements.

• Hole Series, linked Fastener Stacks and managed Assembly Cut/Intersect, with Edit, Update All and Audit.
• Twelve reusable connection recipes, personal JSON libraries and selected local size changes.
• Metric hardware and fourteen sourced UNC/UNF socket-screw, nut and washer combinations, plus a PEM mounting-hole reference.
• Hardware BOM export to CSV and printable HTML, company catalogue exchange and supplier SKU mapping.
• Supported Hole Series and Assembly Cut jobs across one direct linked-file boundary from a Hybrid parent.

First release: local backups of Fusion cloud designs, Windows and macOS

• Backs up the designs of the projects you tick, from all your hubs, or only chosen folders, to any folder: a local disk, a NAS or a detected Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox folder.
• .f3d for each design, .f3z archives with every linked design for assemblies, and uploaded PDF, ZIP and image files as they are.
• Also export: optional STEP, IGES, SAT, SMT, STL and 3MF files next to each Fusion file. A format your Fusion license does not allow is left out and named once under Problems.
• Three modes: after each save, a daily or weekly reminder that asks before it starts, or manual. Back Up Now works in all of them, with a progress window and Cancel.
• Backups are incremental and only read the cloud. The backup folder mirrors hub, project and folders; file names hold the version and its date and time, and the newest five backups per file are kept by default.
• Backup Status lists problems and waiting designs with their reasons, recent backups and the log. Its History shows every kept version of a design, also in a backup folder copied from another computer.
• Restore to Fusion uploads a whole project or one folder, into a new project or back where it was, in this or another Autodesk account, with the original folders and names; Restore version brings back one kept version as a new design.

Read the user guide for the backup modes, where files go and the current limitations.