Assembly sliding puzzle (9 tiles) joint and movement restrictions

[Anonymous]

Hi dear reader,

I'm new to this application (Inventor 2017) and I know there's a lot of questions about this topic, but I always felt it doesn't really cover my problem.
so thank you for reading and hopefully teaching me a thing or two...

Most will probably know the sliding puzzles with 9 tiles.
Well, I was trying to make a kind of lock using these sliding tiles game.
The locking mechanism is not implemented yet, but the housing and the tiles are.

Now, I was trying to assemble these to check for interference and all.

I suppose the planar movement is the right choice here for joigning these parts. 

But here's the tricky thing: restricting the movement

One part is never always connected to the same other part. The middle tile can move to the exterior, from one corner to the opposite.

How do I go about defining such a constraint?

LEt me know if you need any information that I can provide.

Greatly appreciated any ideas,

Steven.

[JDMather]

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@Anonymous wrote:
....Let me know if you need any information that I can provide......

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Attach your assembly here.

How much experience do you have with Contact Sets?

How much experience do you have with Environments>Dynamic Simulation? (Inventor Professional)

[Anonymous]

Hi JDMather,

Thanks for looking into this.

well... I just finished the tutorial learning path 😄

so experience is rather low.

I've watched some youtubes about this cilinder on a belt and others but didn't feel as it was covering my problem.

BR,

Steven.

[JDMather]

1.  When you place your first component in an assembly you should right click when placing and select Ground at Origin.  (You can change the Application Options to do this for you automatically.  In my opinion this should be the Default in Inventor.)

2. You need to make allowances for clearance between moving parts.

In the real world - we cannot manufacture perfect parts.  (and even if we could - the friction would hinder motion)

If you have a 4mm slot then the pin that moves in the slot must be less than 4mm.

This issue is found throughout your design (not just the 4mm example).  I would fix this issue first.

[Anonymous]

ok, I guess that is fixed now.

How to proceed from here?

Thank you,

Steven.

[JDMather]

Is your center piece supposed to be locked in place (can't be moved from position)?

"The middle tile can move to the exterior..." 

How will it get past these obstacles?

[Anonymous]

The intent is that it can get to the exterior, just as well as the exterior tiles can get to the centre.

which is why the joint is set to planar, not rigid.

I guess however your question could be touching part of my problem: defining where to put the joints to assemble the tiles to the base piece in order for it to slide along the plane defined by this base.

Does this help you further?

[Anonymous]

sorry, I see what you mean and will correct it right away.

[JDMather · Accepted solution]

I am also going to suggest that you use Assembly Constraints rather than Joints.

(A Mate constraint between each part and the base will suffice.)

Once you have these corrections I can give you two possible solutions.

1. Contact Sets

2. Environments>Dynamic Simulation

[WHolzwarth]

Hmm. That's a task for real experts. At first, I think, that all parts must be the same, because they all can be placed everywhere: Corner, center, and  horizontal or vertical side edges.

Planar joints or flush constraints are ok for locking movements in z direction.

But then the real struggling starts .. 

[JDMather · Accepted solution]

When you do the Mate constraints - I would include a very slight offset so that no faces are actually in contact at "resting" state.

I didn't take the time to fix everything correctly - but if you turn on the Contact Solver it should work as expected (don't drag too fast).

[Anonymous]

Thank you already for these directions. I'll start looking into them right away.

Steven.