Constrain "Loose" parts within boundaries

[j_berry]

I have a door on an enclosure. When the door is opened, it is supported by a braided wire cable. The cable I made is a crude representation of what a real-life braided wire cable does - the shape is cylindrical and it sort of bends. Whatever, it works for what I'm trying to do.

When I close the door, the cable bunches up and the ten little middle pieces appear to be protruding through the walls of the enclosure. Is there a way to keep these pieces "constrained" within the enclosure (not necessarily placing a "constraint" as Inventor understands the word)? Or, said another way, keep those middle sections from interfering with other solids?

Primary assembly "ENCLOSURE.iam" is attached along with all associated part files. Lmk if it doesn't work. Thank you in advance.

[rdyson]

I think this is what you're wanting to do, except using Pos Reps.

[j_berry]

EDIT: Whoops, didn't notice the Position 1 pos rep. This is sort of what I wanted to do, but I also wanted to be able to mouse click + drag the door open and closed without having the cable go everywhere.

MESSAGE BEFORE EDIT:

Not sure what you did besides add a 270 deg constraint between the BODY FRONT and BODY COVER. I want the cable not to go through the door when I close the door, as shown in the attached image.

As for pos reps, yes that would work for IDWs and picture renderings and stuff. I simply want to show someone this enclosure and open and close the door (in model mode, not simulation or studio) without the cable going through a wall.

It just looks nice when I can show it to someone (in model mode, not simulation or studio) and the first thing they say is not "Why is the cable going through the walls of the enclosure". It's about aesthetics really and is not a big issue.

[rdyson]

You might be able to drive constraint the angle and link its parameter to a distace parameter to the cable. Not sure I'd go to the bother though.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! If I understand your design intent correctly, I assume you would like to mimic the behavior of the chain when the door closes in real world. To Inventor, this may not be an easy problem to solve. You can try making all components in the Flex subassembly Contact Set. However, each link can easily interfere with one another resulting in locking up.

The problem here is that there is so much degree of freedom on the chain that without considering gravity and friction, it is almost impossible to mimic the real life motion here. You can try running Dynamic Simulation in the meantime. I will try thinking of an easier way in Inventor to do it. If I find anything interesting, I will let you know.

Thanks!

[j_berry]

Tried applying gravity in simulation. Doesn't really work. No big deal, it's ok the way it is.

EDIT: I can get it to work most of the time in model mode by clicking the middle of the chain. This makes it sort-of fold in half.