Best practices for closed door/open door configurations?

[rlj4794]

I do a lot of work with aluminum cabinets, and our customers require views with doors open and closed. Our doors typically have a door stop that slides and changes angles as the door opens and closes.

I have tried using flexible assemblies, but they often give me problems. Angle mates either flip alignment randomly or don't go to the side I want them to go to. Perpendicular and parallel mates give me similar problems.

Are there any "best practices" guides for flexible assemblies?

 

[SBaugh]

Look at the Solidworks website under best practices, maybe they got something for you to read on your assembly designs.

Regards

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[TheTick]

For hinges, I would place envelopes to use for fixed-position (usually closed) for design context of the moving leaf. Then I would place the same moving leaf model in the assembly as a normal component and control its position w.r.t. the fixed envelope. This would allow for a moveable leaf that would not have features change dependent on its motion or position.

I have been fighting the "flipping mates" problem more frequently with each new release. It is especially a problem with distance and angle mates. I use more assembly-level sketches and datums for mate references, now. This has helped considerably.

I could be the world's greatest underachiever, if I could just learn to apply myself.

http://www.EsoxRepublic.com

-SolidWorks API VB programming help

 

[SBaugh]

SP2 is going to fix a Configuration mate between parts.

Right Now if you make a config and put a mate on one part its fine. If you change configs, suppress that mate and make a new mate 180 degrees from where the other part was located at. It will maintain that location even when you switch configs.

I don't know if either of you have seen this, but I thought you should know about it, because with Flexible assembly and stuff like that COnfigs are used often and some mates are suppressed so a part can be moved to a new location.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[brengine]

Have you tried a Limit Mate? I envision the Limit Mate being on the door stop. The door would be mated to the sliding door stop rather than the cabinet face. Depending how you have it set up, you might need to dissolve the sub-assembly.

Ken

 

[rlj4794]

Scott, that seems to be my main problem...mates used in inactive configurations don't always "turn off" when supressed in the active configuration.

Ken, I have tried the limit mate without much luck. If my door opens past perpendicular in my "open" config, the slide tries to go to the outside of the door in the "closed" config, rather than stay within the slide and remain on the inside of the door. It tries to take the shortest path to the closed position and creates mate conflicts between my mate that constrains the slide in it's slot and the limit mate. I'll try to post screenshots when I get some free time to make it more clear. I suppose I could constrain the slot so the door doesn't go past 90 degrees, but I would prefer not to do that.

Thanks to all for the info.

 

[MadMango]

That's your problem, your parts are going past 90deg or over-center, and the Mates don't know what direction to go. Have you tried to insert another set of doors in the alternate position and suppress them in a new Config? Then switching between configs shouldn't be a huge deal.

[green]"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."[/green]

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[rlj4794]

Actually, I have long since given up on the slide and have began just using an additional angle mate to constrain the slide.

These are very large assemblies, and I would prefer not to have two sets of doors due to the amount of time required to completely constrain each individual door. Considering the trouble I've had with adjusting a single door, it's one of those things that probably would have been quicker to do at first, but I feel like I've come to far to completely change everything. I'm sure we've all been there.

 

[TheTick]

I always used desgn tables to make sure mates supress when they should.

 

[Johnson27]

I wish SolidWorks would allow us to rotate a part when exploding an assembly. This could be used to represent open doors. I sent in an enhancement request several years ago for this functionality.

 

[mappel]

Trial and error has taught me to mate planes to planes when using limitangle mates and multiple configurations with different coincident mates at different angles from each other.
I had problems like everyone else with mates flipping when I switched between configurations. I noticed two different problems with what I was doing wrong, one I wasn't mating planes to planes which have additional mate options like flip mate and when that failed I figured that the planes I was using didn't necessarily intersect at my hinge point. Now I don't have any problems.

Step 1. What I do is create two planes in my assembly through my hinge axis one which represents my closed position and another plane which represents my open position. I also would create a plane in the part which is rotating (your door) through the hinge axis if one does not already exist.
Step 2. I create three configurations as follows:
#1 Closed config - mate the assembly closed plane with the plane in the part.
#2 Open config - mate the assembly open plane with the plane in the part.
#3 Free Rotating Config - create a limitangle mate between the assembly closed plane and the plane in the part.

I hope this is helpful.

 

[TheTick]

An example:
<

http://www.esoxrepublic.com/models/>

file: Hinge.zip

 

[8Complex]

I've run into the flipping problem often as well, and the only real solution is to not really solve it, it seems. We've got an engineer here who does not work in configurations, just sets limit mates to all his movements and leaves things floating. That way you can move it by hand to whatever position you want.

He's not battling flipping mates, but you just have to be sure that you make another assembly with things mated into place solidly for assembly drawings.