Orrery Animation

[patmat2350]

I'm captivated by orrerys, and recently built the Lego 42179 kit, big fun. Then I decided I needed to model it. Tried Studio from BrickLink, way too clunky and it doesn't do animations. So here it is in F360:

 Questions about animating this thing, noting that it has a complicated geartrain, with two parallel trains (Earth & Moon) riding on the output of a third (arm), all operated by a single hand crank.
1. The entire mechanism works correctly when hand-cranked (drag the crank around with the mouse). But I want to let it run on its own.
2. So I set up a Motion Study on the crank:
a) It doesn't run. The step cursor in the motion study window moves, but the mechanism is frozen, apparently some conflict detected (or I'm just overwhelming F360?). I can make MS run on smaller segments of the assembly.
b) I can only run 0-360° in Motion Study... but the crank needs like 120 revolutions to make a year.  

Any better hints on animating this thing? BTW, it looks like the Animation workspace is not the answer, unless I'm missing something.

[Drewpan]

Hi,

That is a pretty kool model. I would suggest that the model is just plain too complex for your system to render as an

animation. There are a large number of parts that I can see and fusion will keep track of them all while doing the

actual animation, even if they don't move. Have you tried using the AutoDesk online render? It will not be cheap,

but calculating the render and animation may be achievable.

I have a vague memory that a motion study can be set up with more than 360 degrees, just change it to 720 or more.

Again the biggest problem here is that even though the calculation will be almost identical on each revolution, fusion

will calculate it all again each time. This will be an huge render so maybe the online render is your only hope.

Cheers

Andrew

[patmat2350]

Ah yes, I found that I CAN set a bigger number than 360°, like 12,000°. But that's a problem too, as Motion Study only gives me 100 time steps, way too few. 
My system can handle the animation at screen resolution just fine, see the video from when I hand crank it. Goal is to just set it running, and I can do a screen-video capture.

[patmat2350]

Here's a skeleton view of the gear train.

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@patmat2350 wrote:

Any better hints on animating this thing? BTW, it looks like the Animation workspace is not the answer

Autodesk Inventor Professional - Dynamic Simulation.  But the learning curve is very very steep.

[patmat2350]

Ah well... thanks but that's not happening!