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Complete a weld & test-package sign-off

This guide covers completing a weld — the step that records who made it and when — and the completeness rule that governs whether its test package can eventually be signed.

Before you start

Section titled “Before you start”
  • You need edit access on the project. The Complete weld action doesn’t appear for a weld that’s still offline and unsynced, or for a Voided weld.

Complete a weld

Section titled “Complete a weld”
  1. Open Welds and select Complete weld on the weld’s row.
  2. In the Complete weld drawer, fill in:
    • The weld date.
    • One or more welder and process pairs — add a row per welder/process combination that worked the joint.
    • Filler heats, and the joint location (Field, Shop, or TPS).
  3. Select Complete weld to save. You’ll see a confirmation that the weld was completed.

What “complete” means

Section titled “What “complete” means”

A weld counts as complete once it has a real weld date and at least one welder assigned to it — that’s the rule MaxTrax checks everywhere completeness matters, including for test-package sign-off below.

A weld you’ve just created has no weld date yet. Completing it is what records one. Until then most reports leave its weld date blank rather than showing the day the weld was entered, and the NDE backlog no longer counts a joint nobody has welded as outstanding inspection work.

Two details worth knowing:

  • A few older report exports still print 1990-01-01 for a weld with no weld date, instead of leaving the cell blank. That’s the internal “not welded yet” marker showing through; those reports are being corrected separately.
  • Total weld inches are unchanged. The all-time inch total has always counted every weld on the project, welded or not, and still does. What changed is the dated figures — day-by-day progress and any “as of this date” total no longer credit a weld that was never completed.

If you’re looking at welds created before this changed, you may still see an entry date sitting in the weld date column for joints that were never welded. Those older records are being corrected separately; a blank weld date is the correct, current behaviour for anything created since.

Qualification check

Section titled “Qualification check”

Completing a weld does not check the assigned welder’s wall-thickness qualification or whether a qualification has expired — neither blocks completion today. The Wall thickness qualification setting (see Welder qualifications settings) governs how a qualification is derived from completed weld data; it isn’t a gate on completion itself.

What does block completion: a voided weld, a weld on a signed ISO or test package, or an unknown or inactive welder or welding process — each of those is refused with a clear reason.

Test-package sign-off

Section titled “Test-package sign-off”

A test package can only be signed — locked as finished — once every active weld on it is complete (as above) and none of its active inspections are still awaiting review. Signing is a single authorized action, not a separate signature capture; it stamps who signed and when, and locks the package against further weld changes on its ISOs. Attempting to sign a package that’s empty, still incomplete, or already signed is rejected with a clear reason.

The Test Packages screen shows a package’s member ISOs, its completion figures, and its sign-off status — and it’s where signing happens once the package is eligible. Completing welds (above) is what makes a package eligible. See Test packages & sign-off for the full flow.

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