Using the simulation....

I started playing around with it the other day, you know something
simple...ball dropping and rolling down a hill. Worked fine. Now when i
changed the hill from just a stright line to one with say little bumps for
the ball to roll over....well lets just say that it was a no go.

Does SW not use inertia in its calculations for simulation? If not, is that
something for CosmosMotion or some other add-in?

And if I need to show a spring compress and expand because of weight, is
that an add-in as well?

T.I.A.

 

SW uses inertia, but it does simulation in a very simplified way (and often
gives surprising results)
CosmosMotion and other "real" motion simulation packages do such things much
better.
However, models involving changing contacts, such as a part rolling on
another, or gears are always difficult, if not impossible to simulate
correctly because the contact forces are computed in a simplified way (i.e
do not consider material deformation)

motion simulation packages (and SW2004) let you insert linear springs in
your model/simulation.
If you need to compute the deformation of a part subject to its own weight
or to external forces, you'll need a finite elements analysis (FEA) add-in
such as CosmosWorks, or MSC/VisualNastran or one of the many others.