Figured it out here it is for anyone else looking to do something similar:
First two steps from http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=92657:
1. ...to add the total shipping weight (without the tare corrections, i.e. small to medium package 10:1) to the import you will need to run this command from either the mysql command line or the sql patches:
**** NOTE ****
BE SURE TO CHANGE "prefix" IN THE FOLLOWING COMMAND TO WHATEVER YOUR TABLE PREFIX IS
*************
Code:
alter table prefix_orders add shipping_weight_total decimal(14,5);
(in my case I did not enter a prefix with the underscore as it automatically added it for me in sql patches)
2. Then edit your /includes/classes/order.php on line 613 where it reads:
Code:
'ip_address' => $_SESSION['customers_ip_address'] . ' - ' . $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']
);
replace with:
Code:
'ip_address' => $_SESSION['customers_ip_address'] . ' - ' . $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'],
'shipping_weight_total' => $_SESSION['cart']->weight
);
3. Finally around line 323 in admin/orders.php find:
Code:
<tr>
<td class="main"><strong><?php echo TEXT_INFO_IP_ADDRESS; ?></strong></td>
<td class="main"><?php echo $order->info['ip_address']; ?></td>
</tr>
and replace with:
Code:
<tr>
<td class="main"><strong><?php echo TEXT_INFO_IP_ADDRESS; ?></strong></td>
<td class="main"><?php echo $order->info['ip_address']; ?></td>
</tr>
<?php
$ship_wght = $db->Execute("select shipping_weight_total from " . TABLE_ORDERS . " where orders_id = '" . (int)$oID . "'");
?>
<tr>
<td class="main"><br /><strong>Shipping Weight:</strong></td>
<td class="main"><br /><?php echo round($ship_wght->fields['shipping_weight_total'], 2); ?> lbs</td>
</tr>
I rounded to two decimal points you could do that or probably change 5 in 14,5 to the number of decimal points.
New orders will list the shipment weight on the admin order details page - you could put this in other places but the location suits me
Probably better ways of doing it but in the absence of this feature it works great for me now