Animating a part trough a curved rail

[Anonymous]

Hello forum,

I'm making a garage door and I got stuck on animating the part all the way up the rail.

I posted the part files below (names a mostly dutch).

Thanks in advance,

Paul

[Anonymous]

I coudn't upload a .rar file so here are the rest of the files

[ajcraig99]

what part are you stuck with?

I cant open your assembly as it is missing alot of parts. Can you upload a pack n go?

[Anonymous]

The parts you are missing are in my second post as i coudnt upload a .rar

This is what i got now :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY8Xm6R4u0Y&

As you can see its really glitchy.

[ajcraig99]

Still Missing "scharnier.iam"

[Anonymous]

Oh lol I thought i removed that 1.

Here is the right assembly file:

[WHolzwarth]

Transitional constraint was ok. I've added another one, and placed a leading surface in one of the frames.

Only modified files are added here.

Walter

[Anonymous]

Hey thanks for helping,

I have 2 questions on this:

1. How did you place a leading surface ??

2. I would like to be able to drive the part up and down how would i do that?

EDIT: oh and 3rd why did you supress the constained between the 2 wheels

(danke shun)

[WHolzwarth]

- Leading surface is made by Offsetsurface1 in frame-WH

- Just now, you can move it easily by mouse. Drive by constraint could be done with a workaround,IMO. I'll try it later, if needed

- Tangent constrait between the wheels doesn't make sense for me

[Anonymous]

- Oke thanks i'm going to check that out!

- If you would that would be great because i really need to make a good looking animation out of this and that won't work by mouse dragg

- well it also doesn't to me but i was just testing things to make it work

[WHolzwarth]

Here we go.

Search for constraint named Drive and do so.

[Daniel248]

There's another old fashioned method, which some of us might remember from the days when Inventor releases were in single figures.

Particularly useful when animating drag-chains, or any other chains with lots of links, along a path.

A parameter in the (Dummy1) sketch drives the assembly in Inventor Studio.

Example files and animation attached.

[Anonymous]

First I wan't to thank you for these great options!

I'm going to try these in my bigger assembly.

The only thing I would like to ask Daniel is how did you make the animation, because it looks like the way you showed would work perfectly for what i'm trying to do.

[admaiora]

You can combine the Wh method with iLogic, and drive that parameters in assembly enviroment with some ilogic form or rule.

[wimann]

Are you familiar with Inventor Studio at all?

I'm fairly certain that's how he did it. You'd create a new part with a sketch with a parameter (let's say "Dist" for example). Set "Dist" to export by opening the parameters menu and checking the export box in the second to last column for the parameter "Dist". Insert the part into your assembly and constrain it in place to the door frame. Then create work features in the ner part file that are driven by "Dist" and constrain your door panels to those work features. Launch the Inventor Studio Environment and select "Dist" for one of your Parameter Favorites. Then set "Dist" to animate from starting to finishing position using the "Animate Parameters" tool.

You can find more in-depth tutorials of how to do this online. But that's the idea and I'm all but certain that that is what Daniel did.

[VdVeek · Accepted solution]

I created a Chronicle video to show the steps for animating a sweep. You can also use this method to animate your part through a curved rail.

Let's have a look at:

https://chronicle.autodesk.com/Main/Details/7f5f09c5-6fa0-4a5e-ac8c-038c8d0ce4f3

Rob.

[Anonymous]

VdVeek thanks for the clear video I'm going to try this!! I have a good feeling about this!

[Anonymous]

Hey people I just wanted to say thanks for all the help and this is how far i got now!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt2ZcjKZea0&feature=youtu.be

[admaiora]

Good Job Paul!

[wimann]

Paul,

I wanted to throw this out there after watching your video. First off, looks good. But if you are using the method I think you're using then you have created a workpoint that represents the centerpoint of one of your garage door panels and your animating that along a sketched rail to move the door. Correct me if I'm wrong. It's hard to tell given that the video is in 480.

If that is correct, you end up with a misrepresented detail in your video. When the panels pass over the curve, the centerpoint will ride the curve and the top and bottom ends of the panel (where the wheels likely are) will appear to slide off of the track for a moment until it straightens out again. A different approach I've used that has worked for me is this:

Start a part and sketch out the path on your plane of choice. In the same sketch, place a spline on top of your path using several points to hold it in place in each segment (straight or curved). Exit sketch and create another sketch on the same plane. Project the spline forward. Create a line for each door panel at the appropriate length (matching your panels). Constrain these lines so that their end points touch end to end (making a string of small lines) and then such that each end point touches the spline. Set a dimension from one end of the spline to the closest end point of your panel lines (this will be the parameter that you animate). Create a workpoint at each end point of the panel lines (you will use this to constrain your panels to this .ipt). Place in your assembly and constrain your panels to the work points and animate.

That was challenging to explain so I would imagine that it would be challenging to comprehend as well. So I've attached a part file where the sketch and work points I talked about above are all created. The user parameter you would animate in my .ipt is "travel".