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Animating 2 DOF assemblies

How do we animate assemblies with 2 degrees of freedom in Onshape ?

For example...
A helicopter swash plate. Main rotors spin around a central axis, but swash plate can independently move up and down. As the swash plate moves up and down, pitch of the blades change.

The rotational motion of the shaft and linear motion of the swash plate are 2 independent mechanisms.. how can i animate them together ?

Even if i were able to animate the rotation of the shaft, while moving the swash-plate up and down, it would be a good step.

Comments

  • michael_mcclainmichael_mcclain Member Posts: 198 PRO
    You may want to check out cylindrical mate. It allows rotational degrees of freedom and a Z-axis linear degree of freedom.

    Or maybe use a slider mate for only the Z-axis linear movement of the swash plate and use a parallel mate to lock the swash plate Z-axis rotation with the blade rotationaround the rotor shaft Z-axis. Then you can add ball mates to each end of the linkage to have realistic blade pitch depending on the Z-axis linear movement of the swash plate.

    Don't forget that you can modify a mate connector after a mate has been placed. Just go to the mate in the assembly tree and click the flyout arrow to see and modify mate connectors
  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    (a) I believe you will be able to use a gear relationship to drive the pitch of the blades relative to the position of swash plate.(Probably one gear per blade)

    (b) I don't think we can animate 2 independent mates as of today.
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • MBartlett21MBartlett21 Member, OS Professional, Developers Posts: 2,034 EDU
    @philip_thomas
    Is that document public?
    Can you share a link?
    mb - draftsman - also FS author: View FeatureScripts
    IR for AS/NZS 1100
  • philip_thomasphilip_thomas Member, Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 1,381
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