Chain and Sprocket Constraint for Real Time Movement

[Anonymous]

Hi, I'm hoping someone could help me with this.

I'm in the middle of modelling an old car engine in Inventor 2018 and have been adding appropriate constraints to the parts to give a realistic movement.

I've now got to the timing chain and sprockets and finding it impossible to constrain them properly in a way that the chain will rotate along with the crank and cam sprockets in real time.

I've watched various videos and read posts regarding this subject but most seem to be doing this through the animation tool, which isn't an option.

I have setup a test assembly with fixed rotatable sprockets and created a surface for the chain links to follow. I constrain the link to the surface with a transitional constraint which works fine and it can freely move around the chain path, but by the time I have 3-4 links setup problems occur that wont let them do this any more.

I'm also looking to eventually move the chain and cam sprocket just by rotating the crank sprocket using the contact set for a more authentic motion, which is another issue...

I'm wondering if this is possible or not and if so am I on the right path by using these methods?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

[j.palmeL29YX]

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@Anonymous wrote:
... most seem to be doing this through the animation tool, which isn't an option.

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For my understanding only: What do you mean with "the animation tool" and why it wouldn't be an option?

Are you looking for something like to see in the attached videos? Or do you mean a real time movement by dragging the mouse?

cadder

[Anonymous]

@j.palmeL29YX, Thanks for getting back.

By "Animation Tool" I was referring to animating it in Inventor Studio.

Your videos look great, I like the added gravity parameters you've added, and they are what I'm looking for, except I will be adding a Tensioner which will pick up the slack. But yes, I mean a real time movement by dragging the mouse.

I'm not sure if animating the whole of the engines moving parts in Inventor Studio would be much of an option in this case. But I wont right it off completely.

Many thanks,

[j.palmeL29YX]

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@Anonymous wrote:

But yes, I mean a real time movement by dragging the mouse.

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My videos were created in Inventor's Dynamic Simulation. If you want to move your mechanism by mouse dragging in real time this is really not an option for you.

cadder

[Anonymous]

@j.palmeL29YX

I'll take a look into Dynamic Simulation, not used it before so might be the way forward. 

Thank you for your input.

[JDMather]

Using Inventor Studio, and especially Inventor Dynamic Simulation Environment for this purpose is not a beginner level endeavor.

The entire engine could be animated in Studio.

[j.palmeL29YX]

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@JDMather wrote:

Using Inventor Studio, and especially Inventor Dynamic Simulation Environment for this purpose is not a beginner level endeavor.

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Fulll agreement 😉

@Anonymous: So that you get a feeling of what expects you using Dynamic Simulation, here  an example for moving objects along a path (similar to your chain mechanism).

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@JDMather wrote:

The entire engine could be animated in Studio.

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One of a lot of examples here  how to do it in Studio.

If you already know it, ignore this hint(s).

cadder