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Reference Geometry Driven Assembly

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Sainand Jadhav
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9 views

Reference Geometry Driven Assembly

Uploaded by

Sainand Jadhav
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Reference Geometry Driven Assembly

Reference geometry, or primitives, are features like points and lines that can be used to mate
components so that degree of freedom elimination is held to a minimum. This is important for advanced
analysis using time and motion. Redundant degree of freedom elimination causes errors for the solver
and causes redundant mates to be ignored.

Every object has six degrees of freedom, three translational (up/down, left/right, back/forward) and
three rotational (roll, pitch, yaw) as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Degree of freedom example

The three part files need to be modified to create the reference geometry for the assembly. The pins
need a center axis and end points. The hinge body needs an axis along the front bore, the rear bores,
and end points at the external faces. Open them and under the Features add the reference geometry as
shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3.
Start by making the points on the front bore, right side of Figure 2. Select the edge, the circle at the top
of the ¾” bore, select Reference Geometry, Point. This will generate a point at the center of the selected
circle. Do the same for the bottom edge. Rename these points to Front Top and Front Bottom. Select
Front Top and Front Bottom in the feature tree, select Reference Geometry in the command manager
and create an axis. This will create a line between the top and bottom points. Repeat this process with
the outermost points on the bores on the left side of Figure 2. Rename these to Back Top, Back Bottom
and Back Centerline. Add another point on the face below Back Top, on the inside of the opening. Name
it Back Inside. This is where the tab on the front of the part will mate to the slot on the back of the part.
It helps to name all reference geometry to allow for easier selection in the assembly.

Figure 2: Reference geometry for the Hinge Body

The pins need a point at the center of each end and an axis along the center as shown in Figure 3. Create
the points by selecting the circular edge at the end and selecting point in Reference Geometry. Create
the axis by selecting both points and selecting axis in Reference Geometry. Name these Hinge Pin Front,
Hinge Pin Back, Hinge Pin Axis. Do the same for End Pin Front, End Pin Back, and End Pin Axis.
Figure 3: Pin reference geometry

Start a new assembly. Import End Pin as the first component. It will be fixed. The feature tree will list the
reference geometry from the part if you expand the view to show the part features. Figure 4 shows the
expanded feature tree view.
Figure 4: Feature Tree menu

Add a Hinge Body to the assembly. Open the Mate tool in the Assembly command manager tab. Select
the End Pin Front and Back Top points and generate a coincident mate. This eliminates all three
translational degrees of freedom that the hinge body had. It still has all three rotational components.
Rotate the hinge body until it is close to the desired position then select End Pin Axis and Back Bottom.
This coincident mate eliminates two of the three rotational components, leaving only rotation about the
pin. Try dragging the hinge body to see how the degrees of freedom have been eliminated. Figure 5
shows the resultant assembly of these steps.
Figure 5: First two components of assembly

Add a Hinge Pin to the assembly. Add a coincident mate between Front Top and Hinge Pin Axis. Add
another between Front Bottom and Hinge Pin Axis. That should allow the pin to slide along the bore in
the hinge body front bore. This step is shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Hinge Pin added to assembly


Add another Hinge Body to the assembly. Mate the Back Inside point of the new hinge body to the Front
Top of the first hinge body. Add another coincident mate between the Back Bottom of the second hinge
body and the Hinge Pin Back. This should lock the hinge pin into position inside the hinge bodies and
leave a rotational degree of freedom between the hinge bodies and hinge pin. Drag the assembly to
explore the degrees of freedom that remain. Figure 7 shows the completion of this step.

Figure 7: Second Hinge Body in assembly

Repeat the previous process to add and define another hinge pin and hinge body. Figure 8 shows the
resultant assembly. Pay careful attention to alignments as you go through this process. It is easy to get
components flipped and end up with mates that can’t be solved.

Figure 8: Third hinge body in assembly


Add another End Pin. Add a coincident mate between the End Pin Front and Front Top from the third
Hinge Body. Add another coincident mate between the End Pin Axis and Front Bottom from the third
Hinge Body. This will leave the end pin with only rotation about its axis left as a degree of freedom.
Figure 9 shows the resultant assembly.

Figure 9: End Pin added to assembly

This mate is now left with only rotational degrees of freedom about the pin connections. Imagine this as
the first crude layout of an articulating arm design that’s intended to be driven with motors where the
pins are located. This can be used to analyze the physics of the assembly in motion.

Save this assembly, then pack and go and save it as a zip file named HingeRef.

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