A weld map is the drawing with a numbered bubble at each weld. In Weld Mapping you place the bubbles on the drawing's PDF, and WeldTrace creates the welds from them, once for each of the drawing's tags. The same page places notes, lines, dots and components (valves, instruments, supports and flanged joints), and colours the welds by spool.

The drawing needs its PDF, and at least one tag before welds can be placed.

Click "Explain this function" next to the page title for a narrated walkthrough of the page (about 3 minutes), or the book icon beside it to open this article.

Manual or Auto weld mapping

There are two ways to map a drawing's welds:

• Manual weld mapping: you place every bubble yourself on this page. It is covered in this article;
• Auto weld mapping (AI): the AI reads the drawing and places the bubbles, the components, the bill of materials and the cut list. You check them in Review AI Extracted Data, and once the welds are created the weld map opens on this page like any other. See Auto Weld Mapping (AI).
  

Step 1 - Open Weld Mapping

Open the project, click "Drawings" in the project's button bar and click the drawing number to open its Drawing Details, then:

1. Click the Annotate or draw weld map icon. The pencil icon in the drawing's row of the Drawings list opens the same page.

Step 2 - The drawing and its tags

1. The drawing number, revision and title;
2. Tags: each new weld is created once for each tag ticked on its card. The cross removes a tag that no weld uses yet;
3. Add Tag: pick a project tag or type a new tag number, then click Add. With the map saved, tick Create its N weld(s) to create the drawing's saved welds on the new tag too, linked to the same bubbles;
4. The number of welds Save will create.

Step 3 - The toolbar

1. Weld: place welds. Press where the weld is, drag to where its bubble goes, and let go;
2. Seq.: number each new weld one after the last. It is on while you place welds;
3. Note: place a note on the drawing;
4. + Component: place a valve, instrument, support or flanged joint (see Step 10);
5. Clone: copy the picked notes, lines and dots;
6. Select: pick one bubble, note or component, to move it or change it;
7. Multi-select: draw a box round several, to move them together (see Step 8);
8. Line and dot: draw a line or a dot on the drawing;
9. Undo takes back your last change (Ctrl+Z); the bin deletes the picked bubble (Delete);
10. Renumber: give the new welds your own numbers, for example 1–6 becomes W11–W16.

Step 4 - Show on the drawing, zoom and save

1. Welds, Notes, Spools and Components show or hide those on the drawing. Each shows when the drawing has something for it, and they are all on when the page opens;
2. Zoom out and in, and Fit the page to the window;
3. Full view: the drawing fills the screen (see Step 14);
4. Back returns to the drawing; Cancel drops your changes since the last save;
5. Save Draft keeps your work without creating anything (see Step 12);
6. Save creates the welds and components (see Step 13).

Step 5 - Place a weld

1. Click Weld. The line under the toolbar tells you what to do next;
2. Press where the weld is on the drawing, drag to where its bubble goes, and let go;
3. Fill in the card: weld number, planned date, joint type, category, size, WPS and spool. With more than one tag, tick the tags to create it for. Enter keeps it, Esc cancels;
4. Keep placing: with Seq. on, the next bubble takes the next number.

Drag a bubble's number to move the bubble, or its point to move the weld.

Step 6 - The bubble card

Click a bubble, or a weld in the Welds list, to open its card.

1. Drag the card by its title to move it;
2. Stretch it by its bottom-right corner; the arrows button puts it back to its own size;
3. The arrow folds the card to its title;
4. The cross closes it. The card keeps what it says, as a click elsewhere does.

Step 7 - The floating toolbar

The floating toolbar shows only while you place, or with something picked. Drag it by its title, or fold it.

1. The picked weld's joint type, category, size, planned date and Spool. A saved weld's spool changes on every tag;
2. Shape and Colors of the bubble;
3. Line and Arrow: the line from the weld to the bubble, and its arrow head. No arrow leaves the arrow off;
4. Bubble size and Text size; All same size gives every bubble this size.

While you place welds, the floating toolbar holds the defaults for the new bubbles.

Step 8 - Pick several with Multi-select

1. Click Multi-select;
2. Draw a box round the bubbles, notes and components to pick them. The picked ones have a blue halo;
3. Hold Shift and draw another box, or Shift-click, to add more;
4. The floating toolbar counts what is picked and gives the picked welds a spool at once: pick one, or type a new name and click Add. New welds take it at Save; saved welds move now.

Drag any of the picked ones to move them all together. Esc lets them go.

Step 9 - Spools on the drawing

With Spools on, the bubbles are coloured by spool and each spool is drawn through its welds.

1. Click a spool's band or label on the drawing to pick it;
2. Colour: its colour on the weld map; Default colour goes back to the one its place in the spool list gives;
3. Label size: A− and A+ make its label smaller or larger;
4. Drag the label on the drawing to move it; Reset label place puts it back.

Save keeps the colour, size and place with the weld map.

Step 10 - Place a component

1. Click + Component;
2. Pick its Type on the floating toolbar, for example Valve, Instrument or Flanged Joint.

Then press where it is on the drawing and drag to where its label goes, and fill in its card: component number, description, serial number and spool. Click No arrow on the floating toolbar for a label with no leader.

Save adds it to the Component Log. A component already in the Component Log without a marker has a Place button in the Components list (Step 11).

Step 11 - The Welds and Components lists

1. Welds: every bubble, grouped by page. Show all, the new ones, the saved ones or the notes. Propose spools splits the welds into spools, the spool box lists one spool's welds, and Find a number finds a weld;
2. Click a weld number to pick it on the drawing and open its card;
3. Components: the drawing's components by page, with their status and tags. Filter them, click one to pick it, or click Place to put one on the drawing that has no marker yet.

Step 12 - Save Draft

1. Save Draft keeps the bubbles and unsaved cards on the drawing, without creating welds or components. Finish them later with Save;
2. While a draft is open, a banner says who saved it and when. Cancel goes back to the saved map and discards the draft.

On the Drawings list and Drawing Details, an amber paper clip shows a drawing with a draft (Step 1).

Step 13 - Save: Create Welds and Components

Click Save to open "Create Welds and Components".

1. The number of welds and components that will be created;
2. Welds: each weld with its tag, spool, page, joint, category, size, WPS and planned date. A weld number already used on the tag is marked; change it on its bubble, or Remove the row;
3. Components: each one with its type, tag, spool, page, description and serial number, added to the Component Log;
4. Click Save and create. Back to the map returns without saving.

Step 14 - Full view

1. Full view: the drawing fills the screen and the app's top bar is hidden. Click it again to leave full view;
2. Welds list and Components list show or hide the lists;
3. The lists float over the drawing. Drag a list by its title, or fold it.

Read the next article: Automatic weld mapping with AI