In the present study, the existing equivalent stain method is improved to make up for its weaknesses. The improved inherent strain model is built considering more sophisticated three dimensional constraints which are embodied by six cubic elements attached on three sides of a core cubic element. From a few case studies, it is found that the inherent strain is mainly affected by the changes in restraints induced by changes of temperature-dependent material properties of the restraining elements. On the other hand, the degree of restraints is identified to be little influential to the inherent strain. Thus, the effect of temperature gradients over plate thickness and plate transverse direction normal to welding is reflected in the calculation of the inherent strain chart. The welding deformation can be calculated by an elastic FE analysis using the inherent strain values taken from the inherent strain chart.