Joining two components together.

[Anonymous]

Hello.  I was wondering how to join two components.  I have a cylinder and a box and I want the box to be on the outside surface of the cylinder.  How should I do this?  I have a picture attached of the faces I want to connect.  Thanks!

[colin.mcdonald]

Hi entrepreneurialdesign:
. . . Question: do want to have some sort of structure between the faces, or to move the face-on-the-block to be tangent the outside curved surface of the cylinder?
Cheers, C

[Anonymous]

move the face-on-the-block to be tangent the outside curved surface of the cylinder

i attached another photo of a drawing...i want to attach the box to the cylinder face tangently and then go into the timeline to modify/sculpt the box

thanks for helping colin!

[Phil.E · Accepted solution]

Aside from a mathematically "tangent" connection, you should get results you need by these steps:

[Anonymous]

thanks phil!!!

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi, just wanted to mention, keep in mind that if you modify the dimensions/shape of either of those two solids via their sketches, that the interface between them can change.  To avoid this, you first create a rigid joint between the two components (which also can do the moving of them together in the same step).  Let me know if you need help doing a joint.  They will now move in unison, and the interface between them will be maintained even when modifying either solid via their driving sketches.  If you would like to do a command on the two solids together, like fillets between them, shell, etc., you can then apply the Combine command, and the joint will still be maintained. 

Good luck!

Jesse

[Anonymous]

duplicate post

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Just another little tip.  In order to affix a joint origin to side of the cylinder, first make a Construct plane, specifically a Tangent plane to the side of the cylinder where desired.  Then define a sketch on that plane, and go to Sketch > Project / Include > Intersect, click on the cylinder, and a purple line will be created indicating where the very top of the cylinder kiss touches the sketch plane.  Create a point coincident with that line.  Exit the sketch and use that point to define your second joint origin when creating the rigid joint. 

Jesse

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Ah, one final tip.  To make a "very healthy/robust" joint, it's important that when the two solids are jointed together as a rigid joint, an animation should play shaking the two solids around.  If only one shakes, that's not good.  In this case, the sketch made on the tangential plane that I described, needs to be moved into the cylinder component.  Then both solids should shake in the joint animation.

Jesse

[Anonymous]

To be complete, I should also mention that the tangential construction plane that was defined to the cylinder (as well as the sketch defined to the construction plane...note often time a construction plane is not needed, and the sketch can be defined right to the planar face of an existing object) will maintain its interface with the cylinder when the cylinder face changes via changing its driving sketch.  Hence if you built your second rectangular object from the sketch defined to the cylinder face (in this case through the construction plane), then the interface between the two solids would be maintained even when changed from changes to driving sketches, without needing to use a rigid joint.  The only real disadvantage of a joint is that the positions of the jointed objects can jump when editing features in the timeline, due to the nature of "going back in time" with the timeline.  The "build in place" method I outlined just now avoids that issue, and is what I generally do, except for certain circumstances such as when have multiple duplicate "linked" objects.  All this can be kind of confusing at first but I can provide more help if/when you need it.

Jesse

[Anonymous]

I need your help.  I have been reviewing Joining two components together, and I suspect that this is what I need, but I cannot get it to work for me and I have spent several hours on this. 

A simplified version of what I want to do is to attach two components, a rectangle to a sphere.  (What I really want to do is attach a rectangle to a component made from a flattened quadball.)

Jesse said,

In order to affix a joint origin to side of the cylinder, first make a Construct plane, specifically a Tangent plane to the side of the cylinder where desired.  Then define a sketch on that plane, and go to Sketch > Project / Include > Intersect, click on the cylinder, and a purple line will be created indicating where the very top of the cylinder kiss touches the sketch plane.  Create a point coincident with that line.  Exit the sketch and use that point to define your second joint origin when creating the rigid joint. 

According to Laughingcreek to make a tangent plane:

The "plane tangent to face at point" will work on any surface.  Pick the face, then pick the point.  The point doesn't have to be on the surface, but it makes the most sense to me if it is. 

You do have to have a point though.  You can either place one along existing geometry, like an edge, or project one to the surface from another sketch using "project to surface."

1. If the plane is tangent to the sphere, where and what kind of sketch should we put onto the plane?  I have tried a point, circle, and rectangle.
2. Do you click on it before you go to Sketch>Project/Include>Intersect?
3. The menu say geometry and selection filter (specified entity or bodies). What goes where?
4. If the plane is tangent to the sphere, where will the purple line be?                     I appreciate your help.