Roll a BALL

[hexanerax]

Hi,
I need to model and simulate a sphere rolling along a half round channel curved into a tapered spiral. A transitional constraint between the ball and the channel holds the parts accurately but how do i animate / simulate the motion? I also need to replace the 'u' section sweeep with a set of 3 or more parallel rods braced at regular intervals (so that the ball is held in a cage).Attached are the first experimental files.

[JDMather]

Something like this?
http://discussion.autodesk.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/78-657379-5902053-180528/Loop%20d%20Loop.gif

[hexanerax]

Hi,
Absolutely.Thank you! Do you have any link or can you just give me some advice? Also how do i replace the sweep with a coarse mesh made of 6 mm bar so that the ball is visible from all sides?

[JDMather]

You will need Inventor Professional with Dynamic Simulation to do the motion depicted in the linked animated gif.

Change the part color to one of the expanded metal textures.


Before you continue though, I suggest you go through this document as I noticed that your sketches are not constrained
http://home.pct.edu/~jmather/AU2007/MA105-1L%20Mather.pdf

[hexanerax]

Hi,
Thanks for the link. I have used inventor and am aware of the need to fully constrain sketch geometry. I just was trying out the ball rolling simulation before i work some more on the detail.I have a trial version of Inventor Pro 2009 which includes dynamic simulation. I just need some tutorials for that.
Thanks and regards

[hexanerax]

Hi,
I checked out the link and it is a very good resource for me to hone my skills. Thanks once again.

Regards

[Anonymous]

Your document really needs to ship with Inventor, and you can't start using IV until you can pass a test based on the first 10 pages or so. 🙂

PS Nothing against the OP though. I just picked this 1 of thousands of times the document has been posted.

Pete

[JDMather]

>aware of the need to fully constrain sketch geometry. I just was trying out the ball rolling simulation before i work some more on the detail

I am not aware of sketches like this were short-cuts like this are any faster. You didn't need Sketch1 and you have three 12" dimensions for the same dimension.

[hexanerax]

Hi,
Point accepted. Sketch one is the remnant of a platform that was supposed to have been attached to the spiral. as for the multiple dimensions , it would have been better for me to use a concentric constraint to make the curves parallel Anyway , I am more in need of the Dynamic simulation tutorial.Hope you can help me out with that.
Regards
Naren