Couple (mated) rotation of two components

[sehaque]

Hi, I have designed a draft complex system, where a (McMaster) hinge component set can be easily manipulated to be set at any angle, as (it is a hinge) and I can manually adjust the top plate angle with reference to the hinge's cylinderical axis (where the spring is located and about which the shaft rotates). I can do this manually, and for all ther other copies of the hinge int he CAD drawing, all of them follow (expected) the same angular motion. NEAT.

I made up a test component  ( a lexan sheet from Home Depot with various utitliy holes , and mated the mounting holes precisely to match the hinge holes and then applied JOINT to position the holes over the holes for the hinge (top plate) and therefore it is "mounted" I think. 

But when I manually rotate the top plate, the lexan sheet stubornly stays in its original atittude and I have no control.

What is the best way to do this, where if I manually change (for artisitc effects, but really I would like precision control) of the angle of ALL of the top plates, the associated plate also rotates. ? 

It is my intention to (at the end of the design phase) to export the entire sub-assembly (two plates, two hinges, two mounts/clamp-set) as one complex copmonent that is both reverisble (in direction0 and also can be flipped if needed.

One thing that I did by  mistake this time is that t was cleaning up and deleted the orignial base plate components, so in the future I will keep that around, but this is for a test - and I would like to learn how to animate (perhaps by script) a joint of a body that can rotate, and if that body is attached to another body (by a Joint?) that body will also be nudged into its new orientation (with the same rigid relationship as before).

So, is this a case where a "rigid group" is needed? I trried it, and didn't understand it. 

Thanks.

[davebYYPCU]

So far, I have not found any thing but Rigid Joint Rigid Group.

For movement you will need some Revolve / Cylindrical Joints,

Please describe what moves and what doesn't by component name.

[sehaque]

I modiifed the source model and got rid of the joints. 

I ALIGNed the parts as i want them.

I can just select the Surface Mount Light Duty Hinge > Top Plate and select that, and rorate that against its hinge axis and set it to whatever angle from horizontal I want.

I would like the accompanying Home Depot Lexan Sheet (aligned with the hinge's Top Plate's mounting hole) to also rotate accordingly firmly attached to the hinge plate. 

But when i tried to use rigid group, ibetween the Bodies (Top Plate) and (Home Depot Lexan sheet) nothing happens, I adjust the angle of the top plate and then the sheet stubbornly stays in place. 

What am i missing? 

THANKS>

[davebYYPCU]

Can get to the new file later in the day, 

Delete Rigid Groups,  make the Joints as required.

With the hinge working, 

Then you only need a Rigid Joint - Top plate of hinge, and Lexan plate.

When making this Joint you have to dig into the hinge assembly and use the Top plate as an individual component as part of the Joint creation.  Then set up Joint limit for collisions.

Might help......

Might help.....

[sehaque]

UPDATE @@1612, I was able to disassemble the hinge components, reassembled with revolute joints and put in the spring and pivot copmonents where they are supposed to be. I then aligned/mated the Lexan sheet, to the top component, and also verified (I added revolution limits) I can manually drive/animate model  the revolute joint from 0 (closed) to 90 (open) hinge position. The rigid group contained the TOP PLATE and the LEXAN SHEET and I can "revolve" the joint by driving the joint and the plate rotates. HURRAY

But then I copied this system into another instance (two joints, two lexan sheets in two sets) but I can't seem to DRIVE THEM JOINTLY. I wanted to have simiiar movement when I drive them on command, to an pre-set angle, to test out whether we are able to close the panels fully, or not, given where the system is going to be used.

I see that I can manually drive the joints independently. And these are individual components now, that I was able to insert into the system by exporting the original system (of hinge, plates) into the workstapce and then importing two instances of that system component (hinge + plate) into the model. I am hopeful I can DRIVE both joints, so that they can open/close simultaneously. Isn't this possible using DRIVE JOINTS but I can only seem to select one joint at a time.

THANKS

[sehaque]

addenum V3 of the model after my previous note. Ignore earlier models. Any help appreciated.

[davebYYPCU]

This file has a few changes, yes the top hinge plate and lexan plates are joined, the revolve is on the pin but the pin is not grounded, the bottom plate is not joined to anything

Best I can work out, you have 3 of these done now, 

you want all three lexan plates to move in unison, (Ground all 3 pins in the File, for now....)(

You do that with Motion Link - the primary joint to drive a second joint, ratio 1:1 or 360:360

Do both secondary Joints. 

Works here with these instructions.

How this figures with the Hinge pipe clamp early parts, comes later.

Might help....

[sehaque]

thanks, I modified by design to use rotation joints, and can drive them now. 

[TrippyLighting]

In short, that sort of mechanical design should not have any move, align, or position-capture features in the timeline!

Let's discuss a few basics first. Sketches should be fully defined (constrained and dimensioned).

The sketch for the Lexan plate is off into the weeds and is not referencing the sketch origin:

Here is how that should look like:

Patterning in a sketch in this case is not a problem, but it is unnecessary. It is better to create a sketch point and then use a hole feature referencing that sketch point., then pattern the feature.

 

[TrippyLighting]

Attached is a model with my version.

After importing the hinge STEP file you can turn on the timeline to take advantage of the as-built joints.

I convert all bodies into components in one go.

I use a rigid group joint (disable include child components) to lock three of the components (upper hinge, pin, and spring) in place as they don't need to move. Then I use an as-built revolute joint to assemble the lower hinge.

Then I create a joint origin at the overall origin of the hinge and re-orient it to be parallel to the mounting surface of the fixed upper hinge component.

I then take some measurements and create a second joint origin between the center of the mounting holes. It's just a convenient location to use for assembly.

Then I assembled the hinge to the dimensioned and constrained sketch point in the Lexan plate sketch (hole locations).

I then created another sketch in the Lexan plate and projected the hole outlines from the hinge into it, and used an extrude feature to cut the mounting holes into the Lexan plate.

If you change the dimensioning of the sketch point in the hole location sketch the hinge and its mounting holes will change accordingly.