How to make v-guided belt follow path?

[eweber]

Trying to get belt on this unit pictured.

My belt profile is in the upper right hand of the drawing.. sketched in Paint.

How do I go about getting that profile to follow a path around the correct surfaces?

Thanks guys.

 

[rollupswx]

My belt profile is in the upper right hand of the drawing.. sketched in Paint.

No file attached, and why not sketch in Inventor rather than Paint?

In fact, why not use Design Accelerator to create your belt?

 

[eweber]

I realized I didnt have a view of the belt on there until after I took the screen capture and cropped the picture up. it was a time saver.

Also.. Im fairly new to Inventor and don't know much if anything about design accelerator.

Also.. I upload the picture and it says succesful.. wonder why it isnt showing up.

Thanks regardless, I'll look into design accelerator. "Sweep" can't possibly be the answer Im looking for.

 

[rollupswx]

Ah, now that I see your belt profile Design Accelerator is not the answer. All you need to do is a trivially easy Sweep. What version of Inventor are you using - if v2009 I can post an example file.

 

[eweber]

Yes it is v09. I used sweep by projecting the geometry of the pulleys and surface it will be riding on. I was initially looking for something that would be more linked to my geometry.

For example: I get this piece of conveyor back... they want it lengthened by 2'. I now have to delete this belt and go through sweep/project geometry all over again as opposed to it updating the path automatically. It's not that it's going to take extra crucial time, but I was looking for a more precise way to measure the inside loop of the belt. That's really what I'm looking for.

Thanks for all your help. much appreciated.

 

[rollupswx]

> I now have to delete this belt and go through sweep/project geometry all over again as opposed to it updating the path automatically.

You are doing too much work. The problem can be set up to update automatically. I would suggest more training. Particularly you will want information on skeletal modeling techniques and top-down modeling techniques.

 

[rgajewski]

You can also drive certain functions, such as length, from a spreadsheet. Thus, the model would update to the new length.

Every once in a while the voices in my head have good ideas.

 

[GABRIELCRAMER]

I aggree with the previous 2 posts. I love using top down modelling techniques like skeletal modelling or by driving dimensions using a spreadsheet. Top down modelling is a little trickier than bottom up modelling but there has been times where it has saved me many hours of design time. It's great for doing variations of entire assemblies. You should look into and learn about this great design method. In this scenario you could drive the geometry of the belt in the skeleton model and it would update and strech as necessary.

 

[SugarRat]

I agree with the last posts - invest in at least an Inventor Essentials course - its a couple of days intense training but it will save you the world of headaches...