Adapting parts in direction of DOF

[valbotany]

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to create a pair of parts that slide relative to each other like in the picture below, but also share a driven dimension in the same direction as the sliding motion?  In other words, would it be possible to have one of the parts below adapt to the other in the dimension of the length of the rectangle (i.e., the direction parallel to the motion)?

I would like the rectangles to stay the same length as each other no matter how one of them might be modified, but I'm not sure this is possible if there is a DoF between them in that direction such as with this slider joint.

[robmatthews · Accepted solution]

It appears that you have not attached an image that you intended to attach, however, I think that you would be well served by using a derived part workflow.

Please save attachments in your work folder, open attached assembly, and change to "Feature Priority". (I use Shift-RightClick to bring up the shown context menu.) Then alter the dimension on the long side. Update the assembly, and both parts will change. Now open Part2, and see what I did. RightClick on the Part1 node on the browser, and "Edit derived part" to see the settings that do not actually import Part1 as a solid, only its parameters.

Open Part1, and have a look at the Parameters.

Does this help?

[valbotany]

OK, this seems to work great.  I thought Derive was for when you want to make different variants of the same part primarily.  What I was doing seemed conceptually different in that my parts were completely unrelated except a couple shared dimensions.  Deriving the second part with export of just the couple parameters and deselection of everything else seems to be perfect for this, though.

Can you tell me what exactly the purpose of adaptive parts is, then?  How do you know when to use which?  Also, can you tell me how to access parameters in the first part that were created after you have already created the second part?  I had a pair of related parts working great, but then realized there were some more dimensions I might like to related between the two, so I created some additional parameters in the first part, but haven't been able to get those to show up in the second part.

[valbotany]

I addressed this question to a specific poster in my post above, but if it would be also be really nice if anyone else knows the answer to the question of how to export additional parameters later on after the initial derivation of the 2nd part.

[robmatthews]

Sorry for the delay.

There is a check-box on the right of the parameters dialogue that is "Mark for Export". Check this box, exit the parameters box and save the part. Hopefully this will "dirty" the part.  Then go to your derived part and refresh.  If the new parameters do not show up, you might have to Right-click on the derived part in the browser, and "Edit Derived Part", and the click on the symbol next to parameters several times to make it a green tick.  It might prompt you to export un-exported features, which is exactly what you want.

I hope thish helps.

[robmatthews]

Oh, and adaptivity: it's a shortcut, and to me, it's a clumsy one. It's not robust, or transferable, and i feel that leaving parts as adaptive is poor form. It has it's place, but only rarely.

You might benefit from investigating skeletal modeling, also.