Procedurally generated mates for variable cable chain length?

david_riedell

So I designed this cable chain to be 3D printed for a diy CNC I'm building. I'm using a few assembly configuration variables to control the size of each of the chain links.

I'd like to use an integer configuration variable to determine how many links there are in my chain assembly. I can do that pretty easily with a linear pattern, but I want the links to be rotationally mated to each other with identical angular limits so that it functions properly. How can I tackle this without making each of these mates manually?

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/c6282c018f780bd775847628/w/3c437190b0b4b3f998082817/e/a9d7577fe7172d29eb348739?configuration=height=20.0;width=50.0

EvanReese

here's an old thread about a similar issue. There are some clever workarounds that might do what you need, but I'm not sure: https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/comment/55168#Comment_55168

NeilCooke

There’s no quick way. Your best bet would be to assemble the maximum sized chain then suppress with configs. If this is just for this project though, that would be more hassle than it’s worth. 

david_riedell

Thanks for the responses guys. It's too bad you can't easily clone one mate to another mate connector, that would make creating these by hand a lot easier.

I think I'll just insert the end pieces into my assembly and guesstimate how many individual links I'll need to print.