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Revolute mate limit direction

gerald_friedmangerald_friedman OS Professional Posts: 50 PRO
edited February 2016 in Using Onshape
How does one control the direction of rotation when specifying Revolute mate.

Sometimes it moves in the direction I want and sometimes not.

After playing for a while I can get it to do what I want but don't know what I've done...

Best Answer

Answers

  • colemancoleman OS Professional Posts: 244 ✭✭✭
    Good luck
  • brucebartlettbrucebartlett Member, OS Professional, Mentor, User Group Leader Posts: 2,137 PRO
    Just had a similar experience on two revolute mates that I wanted connected with a 1:1 ratio. Initially I found them turning the same way, however I wanted them to oppose each other. Thanks to your post I went in and deleted my first selection then re-selected so it was second in the list and the mate switched direction.

    I also found it handy to have the mate shown which show's the directional arrow.
    Engineer ı Product Designer ı Onshape Consulting Partner
    Twitter: @onshapetricks  & @babart1977   
  • malay_kumarmalay_kumar Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 93
    @gerald_friedman Ideally we would allow to enter negative values for rotational limit as we do for translational degree of freedom. We will be working on that. Until then user will have to fiddle with mate connector ordering and orientation to get the desired revolute direction so positive value works for use case.

    BTW are there use cases to allow more than +360deg and less than -360deg values for rotational limit?

    brucebartlett For relation you can also make them rotate opposite to default by choosing 'Reverse direction' in relation dialog. Did that not work for you or you didn't notice?


  • colemancoleman OS Professional Posts: 244 ✭✭✭
    @gerald_friedman I say good luck because for me and the people I know who attempt to use mate limits....it's a matter of trial and error.  If it's not easy to understand...it's not right.  You shouldn't have to guess, "does it depend on which mate selector I selected first?"  

    I'm sure the onshape team is aware that users struggle with mate limits and they will address it soon.  Until then...good luck.  
  • brucebartlettbrucebartlett Member, OS Professional, Mentor, User Group Leader Posts: 2,137 PRO
    @malay_kumar reverse direction does work, that would have been easier than changing the mate direction, not sure why I didn't do that first, maybe because I'd just read this post and went down the reverse mate direction path.
    Engineer ı Product Designer ı Onshape Consulting Partner
    Twitter: @onshapetricks  & @babart1977   
  • gerald_friedmangerald_friedman OS Professional Posts: 50 PRO
    It appears it is the order in which the mate connectors are chosen.

    If the first ones chosen don't result in the proper direction, delete them and choose in the opposite order.

    Been working for me all the time now.

    I'll have to learn a new operation when a negative angle is allowed to be entered in the future.


  • chrisjh777chrisjh777 Member Posts: 207 ✭✭✭✭
    I'd like to see "Reverse Direction" Check Box added to the Animate Dialog.

    However, thanks to this topic, I now have a solution to how to reverse the direction of rotation.

    Thanks Gerald.
  • janko_mrkvajanko_mrkva Member Posts: 5

    brucebartlett For relation you can also make them rotate opposite to default by choosing 'Reverse direction' in relation dialog. Did that not work for you or you didn't notice?

    Good day.
    Can you please write me where I can find the Reverse direction? I can't find it anywhere.
    Well thank you.



  • neil_brennanneil_brennan Member Posts: 5
    2023 here and this is still a problem. I also can't find any trace of the "Reverse Direction" option anywhere either.
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