Constraint for assembling furniture

[Anonymous]

I'm a middle school teacher who uses Inventor with young students.

We do a furniture project where the kids design furniture and create assemblies.

I don't know how to properly constrain round legs to a table top.  

Please see attachments.

[mcgyvr]

Should the legs be attached perpendicular to the top or are they splayed out on some angle?

If straight then you just need a mate constraint from the top of the leg to the bottom of the table and then you can use the origin planes of the legs to position them properly under the table (again using a mate constraint with an offset)

Have you tried to ask your teacher for help?.. They can easily show you how to constrain those parts in the assembly..

And then ask your teacher how to fully constrain your sketches so they aren't floating in space.. 

[Anonymous]

I'm the teacher.  I use Inventor with 11 and 12 year olds.

I don't know how to use mate constrains to do this.

[TheCADWhisperer · Accepted solution]

See attached.

[Anonymous]

thanks!

I am familiar with the pattern tool.

Could you please explain the two mate constraints and the flush?

I couldn't get the mate constraint to work when I tried.

[mcgyvr]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm the teacher.  I use Inventor with 11 and 12 year olds.

I don't know how to use mate constrains to do this.

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Give me a second and I will post a video for you..

[mcgyvr · Accepted solution]

Here is a quick video of the basics of mate constraints using both faces of parts and workplanes..

This would all be much easier too if you showed your students how to fully dimension sketches and construct those parts centered/mirrored around the origin planes..

[mcgyvr]

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@mcgyvr wrote:

This would all be much easier too if you showed your students how to fully dimension sketches and construct those parts centered/mirrored around the origin planes..

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For example.. Here is the table top..

I added a horizontal constrain and vertical constraint to those 2 lines and now the part is perfectly centered about the origin..

This will allow you to use those planes during assembly and know thats the "middle" of the part exactly..