Constraint for rotating a cylinder in a tube?

[Anonymous]

Hello my fellows,

So I've been working on some designs using gears in Inventor 2017, and I want to animate my assembly using Inventor Studio. I normally connect things with joints, but Studio requires constraints, so my question is: how does one angle constrain a cylinder so that it rotates in a tube? Or is there another way to animate that uses joints as well, to avoid constraints entirely? I've been messing around with an angle constraint on the cylinder in the hole for the better part of an hour and I can't seem to get the movement necessary.

I'm using Inventor 2017, in case that affects the solution.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! This is a geometry specific issue. Please share the iam and ipt files here, so forum experts can comment further.

Many thanks!

[tdant · Accepted solution]

Mate the axis of the cylinder to the axis of the tube, then use mate/flush to set your limit constraints. A +/- mate/flush will mimic the cylindrical joint, while a fixed mate/flush will mimic the rotational joint.