Slot Movement in Assemblies...

miko_cardenas

Hi All,

I am trying to construct an assembly which would allow very precise movement along two axis (i.e. slot with two directions).  Any suggestions on approach?  I understand the basic premise of assigning a specific mate to parts in order to allow a specific movement.  But I have no idea how to assign those mates in such a was so as to allow for movement along one axis followed by movement in another axis and then being able to repeat the movement such as in the following slot pattern.  In the attached snippet the dark blue unit would be sliding in and out of the slanted slots...

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I have both gone over the available tutorials on assemblies and mates and played around with trying different scenarios and I still have no idea how to go about doing this....



Thanks so much.

philip_thomas

Miko - thank you for posting.
This is possible (subject to a couple of condition) by using the tangent mate.
If the pin is smaller than the slot width, its path of travel will not be along the path center line.
The contact needs to be continuous, meaning that the pin cannot exit one slot and then enter another. That said, if the pin slid up the outside face before entering the next slot, it should still work (you may need a small fillet).
Good luck and please post when you get it to work!
Also, as a pro user, you get priority support, please feel free to share with Onshape support and i will take a look at it (please reference my name in the ticket).

philip_thomas

Miko - thank you for posting.
This is possible (subject to a couple of condition) by using the tangent mate.
If the pin is smaller than the slot width, its path of travel will not be along the path center line.
The contact needs to be continuous, meaning that the pin cannot exit one slot and then enter another. That said, if the pin slid up the outside face before entering the next slot, it should still work (you may need a small fillet).
Good luck and please post when you get it to work!
Also, as a pro user, you get priority support, please feel free to share with Onshape support and i will take a look at it (please reference my name in the ticket).

miko_cardenas

@philip_thomas,

I tried the tangent function already but had no idea how to work with the parameters.  I will have to go back in and try your suggestion.  Also thanks for reminding me of the priority support.  Hopefully I'll figure it out otherwise I will follow up with  the support.

Thanks again,

Miko

malay_kumar

I also think in this case you can get much better result by selecting a vertex and curve for tangent mate equivalent to point on a curve constraint.  Curve and point can be brought as sketch and grouped with respective parts. A planar mate can be added to constraint the point on  a plane if needed.