Animate Joint Relationships for Bi-Fold Doors?

[T-SquareXY]

I have a question about Animating Joint Relationships. In my attached model I can currently get the desired motion when Animating Joint Relationships for the Revolute Joint for the Top Leaf on the top Bi-Fold Door Hinge between the 2 Door Panels on the left side of the door. This Revolute is in the Browser under Bi-Fold Door > Left (West) Door > Bi-Fold Door Hinge v3:1 > Joints > Revolute 1.

To get the model to this stage I have been concentrating on establishing joint relationships between the Top Bi-Fold Door Hinge and the other joints on the 2 door panels on the left side only. Joints have not yet been created for the other 2 Bi-Fold Door Hinges between these 2 panels or on the Mirrored panels on the right.

I also get the desired motion when I drag either of the 2 panels on the left outward in the Canvas. Although the right panel occasionally won’t drag out. As I said earlier, I can also get the desired motion when Animating Joint Relationships for the Revolute Joint on the top Bi-Fold Door Hinge. But this is the only joint I can animate to produce the correct motion. I am satisfied with this but ideally I would like the ability to animate any of the joints to produce the correct motion.

I can’t say all of the things I have tried over the past week or more to get the model to correctly animate from any joint. The last thing I did to get the model to this point was to create a Motion Link between the Top Leaf of the Top Bi-Fold Door Hinge & the Pin Hinge at the top-left corner of the left door panel. But after doing so, the right panel produces odd animation when the Revolute Joint for the bottom hinge leaf (Revolute 2) is animated. And I get no Preview Animation when I try to create a Motion Link between the Slider at the top and any of the Revolute Joints.

Can anyone please tell me just what is causing this? Is it because of the opposite directions of rotation for the Revolute Joints, or what?

Thanks

Lenny

[T-SquareXY]

Why has no one responded to this post?

[davebYYPCU]

Why has no one responded to this post?

I can’t say all of the things I have tried over the past week or more to get the model to correctly animate from any joint.

This last statement will have a lot to do with that.  

We are volunteers.  Takes at least 1/2 hour to read your timeline and make sense of it.

It appears that you are wanting to animate joints on an out and back relationship (Reciprocating - open / close or left /right) in the Joint animate relationship command.  You need a Motion Study for that.

In the window, you have got as much as Fusion will give for your assembly. 

Click Drag the Left West door, requires all the Joint associations to comply.

Might help...

[T-SquareXY]

Thanks for the reply, Dave. You are correct about the motion I am trying to achieve. So, it sounds like what you are saying is that "Animate Joint Relationships" does NOT animate ALL Joint relationships. Is that correct?

Dragging the Left (West) Door Panel out in the window does seem to work more consistently. Sometimes I can also drag the Right (East) Door Panel out to produce the same results but sometimes the Right Panel won't drag at all. 

Sorry it took you so long to go through all of my Joints, but this seemed to be the best way to get the desired movement. If you have a better way, I'm all ears. I originally had more components in Rigid Groups and Grounded To Parent but that seemed to over constrain the model. So, I removed most of both and replaced them with As-Built Rigid Joints which did improve the animations. 

You also said, "Click Drag the Left West door, requires all the Joint associations to comply". Do all of my Joint associations to comply?

Thanks Again.

[I_K_H_]

Set your maximum motion limit on revolute 4 under left (west) door, to 90degrees and animate all joint relationships. It seemed to animate fine for me.

[I_K_H_]

Sorry I missed a step. Also set your minimum motion limit on your slider to 23" 

Basically, what I see happening is, if you set the motion limit on Revolute 4 to Max 90degrees and not set the max motion limit on the slider, it will go past center and won't recognize it. The way the pivots are, the R1/2 door can only go open to 90 degrees if even that. Technically in real life it could go a little farther, but with the animation it will "jump" over that 90 degrees tripping point and not return. That's where the motion limits come in.

[T-SquareXY]

I_K_H, thanks for the helpful information. I will check it out and get back to you.

[T-SquareXY]

I_K_H, thanks again for your input. Your suggestion did help with one problem I was having. Now when I drag the left door panel out, it no longer “jumps” past that tripping point. And now I can Animate Joint Relationships from 2 Revolute Joints including Revolute 4, which is a good thing.

Like I said at the beginning, I could already get the desired motion when I Animate Joint Relationships for Revolute 1 under Bi-Fold Door Hinge v3:1. My real door panels don’t fold all the way flat against one another when they are fully opened. So I had already set a Motion Limit for Revolute 1 under Bi-Fold Door Hinge v3:1 at 81.73° which is very close to the way my real doors open. With this Motion Limit I could then determine that Revolute 4 would rotate 82° & the Slider would travel (minus) -2’-0 59/128”. So I changed your 90° and 23” Motion Limit recommendations to 82° and 24 59/128” to match my measurements and everything works great.

One thing I still don’t understand is, why can’t I create a Motion Link between the Slider and either of these 2 Revolute Joints? No matter how I try to configure this Motion Link, all motion and animations stop working. I understand that it really is not necessary at this point in this particular design. But I thought that this Motion Link may allow me to also Animate Joint Relationships from the Slider as well. But why does this Motion Link lock up all motion in the model?

At any rate, even if this Motion Link did work, I am beginning to see that being able to Animate Joint Relationships from any joint would probably require an unrealistic number of Motion Limits and Links. Maybe that is what Dave was trying to tell me about needing a Motion Study for that.