Constrain a part to move along a sketch line

[roy7BB24]

Hi Folks

I'm setting up a bit of a weird custom ladder that I want to be able to move in the assembly environment to ensure it's going to work. I've got a profiled slot in one of my parts, with a sketched line that is the center of the slot and the path of motion I'd like to take. The sketch is also present in the assembly as a layout sketch. Is there a way to constrain a point or axis to move along the sketch line. This is possible in solid works, but I'm not sure how to do this in inventor. Any assistance would be appreciated

Kind Regards

Roydon Mackay

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi Yes it's possible With the mate solution, you can choose the point, and the line, or two points and give the distance you want to move through.
If you choose all the line it would move undelimitted along that axis.

I leave an attached image.

[BDCollett]

I am going to assume in Solidworks it's much like this video, where you can directly constraint to a sketch to guide a path?

(3) SOLIDWORKS - Path Mate - YouTube

As far as I know, the only way to really do this in Inventor, would be to pattern the point to follow the path, and then constraint to that point. Then drive the pattern with a parameter.

If you only have a single line, it works the same as Solidworks.

[roy7BB24]

Cheers, that has worked. I had to constrain it to the line first, and then do a second constraint to limit the path along the line. I hindsight I should have made the point I've limited the distance from in the center of the line, but it's all good, will sort it properly next time

[BDCollett]

Just a note on what I said, this works for a single line in Inventor, however if the path is more than one line you cannot constrain like you can in Solidworks. It would be nice if you could though.