Wheel - Axle hole

[dmytri.eck]

Hello everybody,

First off, let me say that I'm brand new to Autodesk Inventor 2012 and its products.  I have experience using PRO/ Engineer Wildfire 4.0 so I have a slight idea of what I would like to do but the process by which to do it can be confusing.

I am trying to create a wheel that can be rotate about the horizontal axis.  It should have a hole for axle to fit through.  However, when I try to do this it will not let me select the horizontal axis to rotate about.  I also tried to rotate about a center line that I created but it wouldn't do that either...do I have the right idea?  If so, what am I doing wrong?

Thanks for you help!

[JDMather]

Attach your file here.

You might read this document.

http://home.pct.edu/~jmather/skillsusa%20university.pdf

It sounds like you might be trying to rotate about the grid rather than the axis.
Expand the origin in the browser to find the x,y and z axis.

[mcgyvr]

Create the wheel ipt file, create the axle ipt file, start an assembly (iam file). Place your axle and wheel into that iam file (in that order). Mate constraint the center axis of the wheel to the center axis of the axle.

I actually bet your wheel is "grounded" because you placed it into the assembly first. Simply right click on it and uncheck "grounded" or you don't even have an assembly file created and are doing this all in an ipt file.

[dmytri.eck]

Here is a file.  I'm not sure about the types of files that I am allowed to post on here.

Could you elaborate about what you mean by rotating about the grid?  In Pro/E we only rotated about an axis.  I don't think we had the option to rotate about the grid.  

[dmytri.eck]

What do you mean by the wheel being grounded?  Does it mean that it cannot be moved once placed?

[mcgyvr]

ha ha.. I assumed you actually meant a wheel rotating around an axle in an assembly file.. Not that you were stuck making a revolution to create the wheel itself.

Attached is a very basic wheel showing what you need to do.

[mcgyvr · Accepted solution]

and your original where I just added a single line (changed into a construction line just because) and used it as the axis for the revolution.

[dmytri.eck]

haha.  Sorry for the confusion.  Maybe if I want some brownie points with my teacher I'll get the wheel to rotate.

I still do not know how to get it to rotate about that line that you have below the rectangle. What feature are you using to make that line?  It can't be a single line because they features need to be closed for the sketch to finish (right?).

[mcgyvr]

I used the "revolve" tool that is accessible when you finish a sketch.. Your shape was a closed pattern and was used as the profile. The line I created and turned into a construction line became the axis for revolution.

[JDMather]

You could Revolve about ANY line in that sketch (of course you will get different results depending on which one you choose as the axis of revolution. 

Notice also that you are missing a colinear constraint.

[dmytri.eck]

Could you explain the reason behind using colinear constraints?  Also, why would you use a construction line versus a centerline?  Both of them produce similar results...

[mcgyvr]

---

@dmytri.eck wrote:

Could you explain the reason behind using colinear constraints?  Also, why would you use a construction line versus a centerline?  Both of them produce similar results...

---

I use colinear quite a lot to do exactly what it says.. ensure 2 lines are colinear. Constraints can really cut down on the number of dimensions required and should be used as often as possible.

Actually a center line would have been the more correct choice for this situation but either a center/construction or regular line does the same thing. Most of the choices are to establish intent and to help another user who opens/modifies your part. A center line would have shown that the line was being used in a revolved shape when editing the sketch.. It really doesn't matter but I suppose it could. 

[JDMather]

---

@dmytri.eck wrote:

Could you explain the reason behind using colinear constraints?  

---

Uhmm, for the same reason used in Pro/E to fully constrain those lines.

[pbearde1]

You accidentally answered my question. So thank you!