motion, etc.

This is looking pretty far forward for me, since I'm a beginner, but:

Is there a way, in an assembly with moving parts, to capture a text file
describing how the assembly moves? As a simple example, for 10 degrees
rotation of this crankshaft, how far does the piston move? Ideally, in this
case, I would like to receive a text file with user specified step size of
the crank rotation and the resulting piston linear motion.

Thanks,
Bill

 

I think COSMOSMotion will do it, but that's not for a beginner.

I can picture a way that you could do it manually. Set the crank position
with a degree mate. Then put a driven dimension on the piston. Now change
your crank position by the desired increment and read & record the piston
dimension.

WT

 

Thats kind of what I had in mind for the manual method. All the motions I
want to capture are angular rotation motions with linkages and crank-arms,
so I pictured a fixed degree wheel and a pointer attached to the part in
question. It'd be nice to automate the process, though.

Bill

 

You might wish to look at Analytix, which is a nifty little program for
doing all kinds of linkages. You can set the increments of movement and
record the outputs. It provides acceleration, velocity and loads for a
variety of situations. There is a trial version available. And no, I
don't work for Saltire.

http://www.saltire.com/ax.html

Gary

 

This is not difficult. It involve a little macro programming and a
layout sketch.

Set up an angle mate on the crank.
Set up a layout sketch to capture the length of a line with one end
fixed and the other attached to the piston top.

Record a macro setting the crank angle and add in the readout of the
line length via a driven dimension. Then in the macro open a text file
and write the numbers out. Put a for loop in the macro and drive the
angle that way.