Centering a Revolute Mate on a Squarish Hole

kris_yokoo464

I am an old dog trying to learn new tricks!

How can I center a Revolute Mate on a squarish hole?

This is a Vex robotics channel. Even the axle is square too but I haven't gotten to that yet.

Need to build 4 bar, 6 bar, scissor lifts. This is for middle school kids who are building robots, if it's too hard the kids are not going to use it. Originally they were trying to use Inventor which made me weep because it is so hard.

Vex has a library of Vex parts that could be imported into Onshape.

I can put mate connectors on the part before putting it in an Assembly but that is messy and dumb to put a mate connector in all of the holes in the part. Yes, it would be perfect if the holes were circular but this is what Vex uses.

Thanks for your expertise and comments.

kyokoo

brucebartlett

Add a Mate Connector in the assembly. Select between from the drop down, then select a face and the top edge of the hole then also tick move to rotate around the x or y to get the mate connectors z in the direction of the hole. 

owen_sparks

Personally I'd pattern the mates in the part studio so you have one ready to use in each square.  You could then label them say Rows A to C, Numbers 1 to whatever and then should you need to reference how to put it together you could say mate to C3.

O.S.

philip_thomas

brucebartlett

Add a Mate Connector in the assembly. Select between from the drop down, then select a face and the top edge of the hole then also tick move to rotate around the x or y to get the mate connectors z in the direction of the hole. 

owen_sparks

Personally I'd pattern the mates in the part studio so you have one ready to use in each square.  You could then label them say Rows A to C, Numbers 1 to whatever and then should you need to reference how to put it together you could say mate to C3.

O.S.

philip_thomas

kris_yokoo464

Thanks for the answers from the pros! All good suggestions. I would rather not place the mates in the Part Studio, but then again it would make it easier for the kids to snap things together, especially if they share a common library. It would be nice to have everything ready to snap in place from gears to structural pieces.

I'll ask another question on the best way to align channels! Thank you for your expertise.

I'm working with the teacher of Percy Julian Middle School program, this is what middle school kids are doing now:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/7805503@N04/33372881000/in/album-72157682050635355

We are looking for a collaborative design program to allow the kids to mess around with design ideas.

brucebartlett

philip_thomas said:

Philip, that works much better than my suggestion which needed the rotate, I remember this one.