parallel cyl rods & hose carrier travel in solidworks

[duk748]

hello - i am a novice solidworks user & have 2 questions - how can i get 2 parallel piston rods to travel togather when the cylinders stroke
i have mated one rod to a connector but when i try to mate to other or make them parallel it will not let me
has anyone built a hose carrier (catrac, gortrac, etc.) in a simple way as to show how the carrier travels -
my application is vertical & i want a simple way to show the travel when it is up or down -
i have tried to build the carrier in pieces w/ the links but am having a hard time moving them - any help would be
greatly appreciated - thank you

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Go to Tools > Options > System Options > External References and deselect the Allow multiple contexts for parts when editing in assembly option.

 

[handleman]

Building a hose carrier in links is ridiculously resource-intensive, and seeing each little link is not so beneficial unless you are doing some type of marketing rendering or something. I always just model it as a single line-arc-line sketch, then an "extrude thin" feature. It's easy to in-context define the sketch endpoints, then use equations or configs in the part file to figure out where the arc goes.

-handleman, CSWP (The new, easy test)

 

[EEnd]

Any attempt that I have made to model the wire carriers (e-chain) that we use as links has failed. I would get a train of them to follow the desired path, but inevitably when I would exercise them back and forth, some of the mates would flip and the links would fold up on themselves and it would become a train wreck.

That said, I have come up with a technique that I like for representing the volume occupied by the carrier. The simplest form has a block representing each end a half cylinder for the arc. The arc moves at 1/2 the rate of the free block. This is accomplished by by the link part which has just reference geometry and is mated in such a way that it's origin is always on the midpoint of a line between the two end blocks. The end arc is mated relative to the origin of the link. This geometry is flexible and drags cleanly. The attached "E Chain.SLDASM" displays the concept. "E Chain2.SLDASM" is the base geometry with 2 in-context extruded parts which occupy the space between the arcs and the ends. The arcs and the ends drag nicely, but the in-context parts require a <CTRL>Q to update. The third example "E Chain3.SLDASM" is the base geometry with the runs between the ends and the arcs occupied by telescoping blocks. The whole thing drags well, and does not require a <CTRL>Q but the telescoping blocks have to add to the complexity. Although I have not noticed a problem from them.

Attached are the 3 examples built in SW 2010.

Eric

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

The ZIP file is empty.

 

[duk748]

hello again & thank you very much for all your help - yes the .zip file is empty - could the person please re-submit this - thank you again

 

[EEnd]

Attempt number 2.

 

[EEnd]

Trying not zipped.

 

[EEnd]

Here is E Chain2.SLDASM

 

[EEnd]

And E Chain 3.SLDASM.

When I downloaded the second example, I had to rename the file back to "E Chain 2.SLDASM" (replaced underscores with spaces) to get the in-context parts to update correctly.

 

[SnowCrash]

Duk, the challenge with mates is to not overly restrict the parts. Try to use parallel instead of coincident and perpendicular for planes whenever possible.

--
Hardie "Crashj" Johnson
SW 2011 SP 4.0
HP Pavillion Elite HPE
W7 Pro, Nvidia Quaddro FX580