getting started using mechanism/pro

Getting Started Using MECHANISM/Pro

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ii Getting Started Using MECHANISM/Pro Copyright

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Part number: 110MECHGS-01

Getting Started Using MECHANISM/Pro iiiContents

Contents

About This Guide vWelcome to MECHANISM/Pro vContent of This Guide vWhat This Guide Assumes v

Chapter 1. Introducing MECHANISM/Pro 1

Overview 1What Is MECHANISM/Pro? 2What Are the Benefits of Using MECHANISM/Pro? 2How to Learn MECHANISM/Pro 3

Finding Out What’s New and Changed 3Installing and Configuring MECHANISM/Pro 3Learning MECHANSIM/Pro Basics 3Using MECHANISM/Pro 3

Chapter 2. Getting Started Using the Tutorial 5

Overview 5Setting Up the Tutorial 6Opening the Assembly 7

Chapter 3. Defining the Kinematic Mechanism 9

Overview 9Defining the Elements That Move 10Adding a Part to the Ground Rigid Body 12Constraining the Movement of the Mechanism 13

Creating a Revolute (Hinge) Joint 14Creating a Second Revolute Joint 18Creating a Third Revolute Joint 22Creating a Fourth Revolute Joint 23

Defining the Motion 25

iv Getting Started Using MECHANISM/ProContents

Chapter 4. Simulating and Reviewing Your Mechanism 29

Overview 29Simulating Your Mechanism 30Reviewing the Results 31

Animating the Kinematic Mechanism 31Viewing the Mechanism at Various Simulation Frames 32Animating with Collision Checking 33Animating with Clearance Study 35

Ending the Tutorial 37Next Step 37

Index 39

Getting Started Using MECHANISM/Pro About This Guide

v

About This Guide

Welcome to MECHANISM/ProWelcome to MECHANISM/Pro , Mechanical Dynamic’s (MDI’s) virtual prototyping software. MECHANISM/Pro helps you study the motion of a mechanism created from a Pro/ENGINEER assembly. It adds menus for defining and analyzing a mechanism directly into the Pro/ENGINEER interface. MDI developed MECHANISM/Pro in cooperation with Parametric Technologies Corporation as a Cooperative Software Partner (CSP).

Content of This GuideThis guide gives you an overview of using MECHANISM/Pro and provides a tutorial for learning how to define and analyze a mechanism. If you have never used MECHANISM/Pro before, we recommend that you step through the tutorial before using MECHANISM/Pro.

What This Guide AssumesThis guide assumes that MECHANISM/Pro is installed on your computer or network. It also assumes that you are familiar with the Pro/ENGINEER features and modeling concepts and that you know how to use the Pro/ENGINEER interface.


About This Guidevi

1 Introducing MECHANISM/Pro

OverviewThis chapter introduces you to MECHANISM/Pro and explains how you can benefit from using it. It also explains how you can learn MECHANISM/Pro.

■ What Is MECHANISM/Pro?, 2

■ What Are the Benefits of Using MECHANISM/Pro?, 2

■ How to Learn MECHANISM/Pro, 3


Introducing MECHANISM/Pro2

What Is MECHANISM/Pro?MECHANISM/Pro helps you study the motion of mechanisms that you create from Pro/ENGINEER assemblies. MECHANISM/Pro combines the feature-based modeling power of PTC’s Pro/ENGINEER with the kinematics and dynamics modeling power of MDI’s ADAMS software.

What Are the Benefits of Using MECHANISM/Pro?MECHANISM/Pro enables you to:

■ Have confidence that your assembly will perform as expected without parts colliding once the assembly begins moving. Because MECHANISM/Pro uses your original Pro/ENGINEER geometry for interference and clearance studies, inaccuracies based upon geometric approximations do not occur.

■ Increase efficiency and productivity since you do not have to learn another software interface. Defining the motion of the mechanism, analyzing it, and animating the results are all performed within the familiar Pro/ENGINEER interface.

■ Eliminate the labor-intensive task of manually transferring mass properties. Pro/ENGINEER calculates the mass properties and automatically transfers them to MECHANISM/Pro for analysis.

■ Speed the modeling process by removing the archaic process of keyboard entry. Point-and-click operations, such as At Center and At Vertex, allow fast and accurate placement of joints. By using the Pro/ENGINEER geometry, you retain the original design intent for the assembly.

■ Eliminate the expense caused by design changes late in the manufacturing process. MECHANISM/Pro speeds the design process by reducing costly design change iterations. It enables you to design and evaluate moving assemblies so that you can find and correct design mistakes before building physical prototypes.

Getting Started Using MECHANISM/Pro Introducing MECHANISM/Pro

3

How to Learn MECHANISM/ProWe’ve provided you with documentation that helps you work with MECHANISM/Pro whether you are a new or experienced user.

Finding Out What’s New and Changed

You can use the online What’s New and Release Notes to find out what’s been added to and changed in a new release of MECHANISM/Pro. It’s a good place to start if you are upgrading from a previous release of MECHANISM/Pro.

Installing and Configuring MECHANISM/Pro

To learn how to install MECHANISM/Pro, see either of the following printed guides depending on your system:

■ Installing ADAMS on UNIX

■ Installing ADAMS on Windows

To learn how to configure MECHANISM/Pro, see the online guides:

■ Running and Configuring ADAMS on UNIX

■ Running ADAMS on Windows

Learning MECHANSIM/Pro Basics

If you’re new to MECHANISM/Pro, work through the tutorial we’ve provided in this guide. As you work through it, you’ll learn basic MECHANISM/Pro concepts and tasks that you can perform.

Using MECHANISM/Pro

If you’re a beginning or advanced user, the online guide, Using MECHANISM/Pro, contains reference and procedure information on using MECHANISM/Pro to create and analyze different types of mechanisms.


Introducing MECHANISM/Pro4

2 Getting Started Using the Tutorial

OverviewTo help you learn how to use MECHANISM/Pro, we’ve provided you with this step-by-step tutorial. In this tutorial, you’ll build a fourbar linkage that collides with a stationary block. The tutorial leads you through all of the menu selections and prompts necessary to perform these operations. The goal is to provide you with a general understanding of how to build, analyze, and review the results of a kinematic mechanism using the Pro/ENGINEER interface.

In this lesson, you will set up the tutorial files and open the assembly:

■ Setting Up the Tutorial, 6

■ Opening the Assembly, 7

The tutorial takes about 1-1/2 hours to complete.


Getting Started Using the Tutorial6

Setting Up the TutorialBefore starting the tutorial, you need to copy the tutorial files to a working directory that you have read and write access to so that you can edit the files as needed.

To copy the files:

1 Create a working directory from which you’ll run the tutorial. For example, use the following UNIX command to create a directory called tutorial:

mkdir tutorial

2 Copy the tutorial files to the new working directory. The tutorial files are located in the following directory, where install_dir is the root directory where you installed MECHANISM/Pro:

install_dir/mechpro/tutorial/fourbar

3 Start MECHANISM/Pro by starting Pro/Engineer according to the instructions for your computer platform.

Getting Started Using MECHANISM/Pro Getting Started Using the Tutorial

7

Opening the AssemblyOpen the assembly provided for this tutorial by performing the following steps.

To open an assembly:

1 From the Pro/ENGINEER File menu, select Open.

2 Using the file browser, change to the tutorial directory, and then, from the Type list in the browser dialog box, select Assembly.

3 Select the fourbar.asm file and select Open.

4 Turn off datums to clarify the view of the assembly.

5 Zoom in closer to the assembly, as desired.

Your screen appears as shown in Figure 1. We’ve added names to the parts in the assembly to help you understand the parts that make up the fourbar linkage.

Figure 1. Your Screen After Retrieving the Fourbar Assembly


Getting Started Using the Tutorial8

3 Defining the Kinematic Mechanism

OverviewIn this lesson, you will learn how to perform the following modeling operations using MECHANISM/Pro to define your mechanism:

■ Defining the Elements That Move, 10

■ Adding a Part to the Ground Rigid Body, 12

■ Constraining the Movement of the Mechanism, 13

■ Defining the Motion, 25


Defining the Kinematic Mechanism10

Defining the Elements That MoveIn this section, you define the assembly as a mechanism and describe how it will move. The first step in setting up a mechanism is to define rigid bodies. A rigid body is one or more Pro/ENGINEER parts or subassemblies that may move as a single unit. If you select to create a rigid body from a subassembly, all the Pro/ENGINEER parts in the subassembly remain fixed with respect to the subassembly as the subassembly moves.

In this example, you use the automatic method to define one rigid body for each Pro/ENGINEER part. The automatic method creates one rigid body for each Pro/ENGINEER assembly or part belonging to the first level of the model tree (children of the main assembly). In the fourbar assembly used in this tutorial, this includes the Pro/ENGINEER parts named block, input, coupler, and follower.

During the automatic method, MECHANISM/Pro automatically defines the ground rigid body. The ground rigid body is a special part that serves as the global reference frame for the mechanism and does not move during the simulation. All other rigid bodies are defined to move in the coordinate system of the ground rigid body.

The ground rigid body defined by MECHANISM/Pro is not initially related to any Pro/ENGINEER part or assembly; you can add or remove Pro/ENGINEER parts or assemblies to it but you can’t remove it.

To define elements that move:

1 From the Assembly menu, select:

MECH/ProSet Up Mechanism

2 From the SET UP MECHANISM menu, select:

Rigid BodiesCreate Automatic

An information window appears, listing the three rigid bodies. You will not see anything change, but Pro/ENGINEER now has a rigid body corresponding to each of the four parts in the fourbar assembly.

3 Select Close.

Getting Started Using MECHANISM/Pro Defining the Kinematic Mechanism

11

Because the two rigid bodies labeled Coupler and Follower (see Figure 1 on page 7) reference two different instances of the same Pro/ENGINEER part named FOLLOWER, MECHANISM/Pro automatically names the first one FOLLOWER and the second one FOLLOWER_1. You need to rename the first one to COUPLER and the second one to FOLLOWER.


Rigid BodiesModify

The SELECT RIGID BODY menu appears and the Pick Component option is activated.

Note that from the SELECT RIGID BODY menu, you can select a rigid body by:

■ Picking one of its components.

■ Selecting Sel By List and choosing the name of the rigid body from the list of defined rigid bodies that appears. Note that this is the only way to select the ground rigid body when no Pro/ENGINEER part or assembly is associ-ated with it.

5 On the screen, pick the part labeled Coupler, as shown in Figure 1 on page 7.

The following message and the Modify Rigid Body menu appear:

Selected Rigid Body: FOLLOWER

6 From the MODIFY RIGID BODY menu, select Name.

7 Using the keyboard, enter COUPLER to rename the rigid body, and press Enter.

8 From the MODIFY RIGID BODY menu, select Done/Return.

9 Repeat Steps 3 through 7 to rename the rigid body FOLLOWER_1 to FOLLOWER.



10 To check your work, from the SET UP MECHANISM menu, select:

Rigid Bodies Info

An information window appears with information about the rigid bodies you created.

11 Verify that you correctly modified the rigid body names, and then select Close.

Adding a Part to the Ground Rigid BodyNow you add the Pro/ENGINEER BLOCK part to the ground rigid body. Because the automatic method created a rigid body including the BLOCK part, you have to delete that part before adding it to the existing ground rigid body.


Rigid BodiesDelete

2 On the left side of the screen, pick the Pro/ENGINEER BLOCK part.

3 From the SELECT RIGID BODY menu, select Done/Return.

You’ve deleted the BLOCK rigid body and you can now add the BLOCK part to the ground rigid body.


Rigid BodiesModifySel By ListGROUNDAdd Component

5 On the left side of the screen, pick the Pro/ENGINEER BLOCK part.

6 From the MODIFY RIGID BODY menu, select Done/Return.

Now the ground rigid body contains the BLOCK part.


13


Rigid BodiesInfo

8 Verify that the ground rigid body now contains the part BLOCK, and then select Close.

Constraining the Movement of the MechanismOnce you’ve defined the rigid bodies, the next step is to define constraints (joints). Joints dictate how the rigid bodies are attached to each other and how they move relative to each other.

Joints are analogous to the assembly construction techniques available in the Pro/ENGINEER assembly mode, with the additional ability to allow the rigid bodies to move with respect to each other. Although the parts have already been assembled (that is, positioned in the proper place in space relative to each other) in Pro/ENGINEER, you need to define how they move. For example, the door to a room is constrained to the door frame by hinges. These hinges function as constraints, allowing the door to swing about an axis of rotation that passes through the centerline of the hinges.



Creating a Revolute (Hinge) Joint

To create the first joint, you create a revolute joint, named input_to_coupler, that attaches the rigid body named input to the rigid body named coupler. You select a revolute joint so these rigid bodies rotate about a common axis with respect to each other, similar to the way the door rotates about the hinge attached to the door frame.

Specifying the Bodies to be Constrained

The first step in creating a revolute joint is to assign it a name and identify the rigid bodies that it is to constrain.

To specify the bodies to be constrained:


ConstraintsJointCreateRevolute

The menu you use to define the joints of your mechanism is the same for all joint types; some options are enabled or disabled depending on the type of joint you are defining.

Notice that whenever you do not enter enough information to define a joint, MECHANISM/Pro informs you. To see how MECHANISM/Pro informs you, select Done/Return and read the message in the message window below the toolbars. Note that MECHANISM/Pro places messages and prompts in this message window and in the status area. As you progress through the tutorial, you’ll see helpful and informative messages as well as prompts in the message window.

2 From the DEFINE JOINT menu, select Name.

3 To name the joint, using the keyboard, enter input_to_coupler and press Enter. If you make a mistake, just select Name and enter the information again.

4 From the DEFINE JOINT menu, select First RB.

The SELECT RIGID BODY menu appears and the Pick Component menu selection is activated.


15

5 In response to the prompt, from the left of the screen, pick the small vertical bar named input (do not select the block on the far left).

MECHANISM/Pro temporarily highlights the part and a message appears in the message window to confirm that you have selected it.

6 From the DEFINE JOINT menu, select Second RB.

7 Pick the medium-sized rigid body named coupler that connects the shortest rigid body to the longest rigid body. This medium-sized rigid body is almost horizontal, in the center of the screen.

After you select the part, MECHANISM/Pro temporarily highlights the part in red.

Specifying the Location of the Joint

Once you have identified which two rigid bodies the revolute joint connects, you can specify the location of the joint. The revolute joint will be located at the center of one of the arcs where the input and coupler parts overlap.

To specify the location of the joint:

1 From the DEFINE JOINT menu, select Location.

The LOCATION menu appears. It contains a list of menu selections that you can use to specify the point through which the axis of rotation passes. As you move the cursor up and down the LOCATION menu, read the brief help messages displayed in the status area to review how each location technique works. The common theme is that existing Pro/ENGINEER geometry is used to specify the location.

2 From the LOCATION menu, select At Center.

3 Choose one of the arcs where the two parts overlap.

MECHANISM/Pro momentarily highlights the selected arc in blue. If you make a mistake, choose Location → At Center and try again.



Defining the Orientation of the Joint

Now you define the orientation of the axis of rotation. The axis passes through the point specified in the previous LOCATION menu selection.

To define the orientation of the joint:

1 From the DEFINE JOINT menu, select Z Orientation.

The ORIENTATION menu appears. Like the LOCATION menu, it contains a list of options for orienting the joint’s axis of rotation. As you move the cursor up and down the menu, you can review the help messages that explain the various orientation methods. The axis of rotation is normal to the front face of the part named input so you can use the normal-to-plane construction technique.

2 From the ORIENTATION menu, select Normal Pln.

3 Choose the front face of the smaller part named input.

A small feedback vector appears. It starts from the selected location and has the direction of the normal to the selected plane. As shown in the message window, you have to press:

■ Left mouse button to cancel (abort).

■ Middle mouse button to accept.

■ Right mouse button to flip the orientation.

4 Press the middle mouse button to accept.

Now you’ve finished defining the location and orientation of the axis of rotation. You’ve defined the axis as passing through the location point at the center of the arc and being normal to the front face of the parts.

You have now entered all the information necessary for defining the revolute joint (Friction is optional).

5 From the DEFINE JOINT menu, select Done/Return.

The revolute joint icon appears on the screen, as shown in Figure 2.


17

Note that this joint icon looks like a door hinge. The icon allows you to visualize how the rigid bodies are connected to each other. The hinge allows the two rigid bodies to pivot about one another at the center of the hinge. The icon is centered at the location you specified with the axis of the revolute joint oriented along the axis of rotation you specified with the Z Orientation menu selection.

Figure 2. Your Screen After Creating the First Revolute Joint

If the joint does not appear in the correct orientation or location as shown in Figure 2, you can delete the joint and repeat the joint creation procedure again or you can modify the joint. If you are dissatisfied with the joint location or orientation, you can delete or modify joints at any time.

6 If you want to delete the revolute joint, select the following menus:

Set Up MechanismConstraintsDelete

The GET SELECT menu appears and the Pick menu selection is activated; you can select the joint to delete from the screen. Note that you can select the joint to delete by choosing its name from the joint name list that appears after selecting Sel By Menu.



Creating a Second Revolute Joint

In this section, you create a second revolute joint connecting the coupler part to the follower part. The coupler part is nearly horizontal in the center of the screen and the follower is diagonal on the right side of the screen.

Specifying the Bodies to be Constrained

First, you’ll assign a name to the second joint and specify the two rigid bodies that you want the joint to constrain.

To specify the bodies to be constrained:

1 From the MECH/Pro menu, select:

Set Up MechanismConstraintsJointCreateRevoluteName

2 Using the keyboard, enter coupler_to_follower as the name of the joint, and press Enter.


4 On the screen, pick the part coupler. This is the part connecting the smallest vertical part to the largest part.


6 On the screen, pick the follower part, which is the largest link located on the right side of the screen.


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Specifying the Location and Orientation of the Joint

For this revolute joint, you explore alternative methods of specifying the location and orientation of the axis of rotation. For its location, you manually enter the location coordinates.

To specify the location and orientation of the joint:

1 From the DEFINE JOINT menu, select:

LocationFree

2 Using the keyboard, enter the following location coordinates, and then press Enter:

227.5, 50, - 10

Otherwise, enter the coordinates when prompted to do so at the bottom of the screen; the ‘,’ character is optional, but you must type it if you do not type any space character between the coordinates.

These values place the joint at the center of the arcs where the coupler and follower overlap.

For the previous revolute joint, you chose the normal-to-plane construction technique of specifying the axis of rotation. You can also describe the same orientation using the thru-edge technique. The edges connecting the front face to the back face of the coupler part are parallel to the normal of the coupler face.


Z OrientationThru Edge

The GET SELECT menu appears. At this point, you could just select the edge immediately by picking it on the screen. Instead, let’s explore the selection menu in more detail. To learn a useful feature of the selection menu, use the Query Sel menu option. The Query Sel menu option is useful when you want to select a very small object from the screen. It allows you to verify that you have selected the correct object.



4 From the GET SELECT menu, select Query Sel.

5 Choose one of the smaller edges along the side of the follower, as shown in Figure 3.

These edges are normal to the face of the part, so the resulting orientation will be the same as if you had selected Normal Pln and selected the face.

The edge you have selected is highlighted in blue. A Query Bin appears.

6 If the edge highlighted in blue is not the small edge, from the Query Bin, choose the Down arrow until the small edge is highlighted. If the Query Bin goes away before you have accepted the correct edge, try again, being careful to select near the small edge.

Figure 3. Edge Used to Define Second Joint Axis of Rotation

7 After the edge you want is highlighted in blue, from the Query Bin, select Accept.

Notice that the orientation vector appears in the message window. It is the same orientation vector defined for the first joint.

8 Click the middle mouse button to accept.


21


Your screen appears as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Your Screen After Creating the Second Revolute Joint



Creating a Third Revolute Joint

You now create a third revolute joint connecting the follower rigid body to the block rigid body. The block rigid body is the ground rigid body that does not move and defines the global coordinate system. You can create the third revolute joint using either of the first two methods.

To create the third revolute joint:



2 Using the keyboard, enter follower_to_ground, and then press Enter.


4 Choose the rigid body named follower. It is the longest part on the right side of the screen.


6 On the left side of the screen, pick the rigid body containing the part named Block or select it from the rigid body name list.


LocationAt Center

8 Choose one of the arcs at the lower end of the follower rigid body.


Z OrientationNormal Pln

10 Pick the front face of the follower rigid body.

11 Click the middle mouse button to accept.


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12 From the DEFINE JOINT menu, Done/Return.

13 Verify that the joint appears as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Your Screen After Creating the Third Revolute Joint

Creating a Fourth Revolute Joint

Now, create the fourth revolute joint at the lower end of the input rigid body and connect the input rigid body to the ground rigid body.

To create the fourth revolute joint:



2 Using the keyboard, enter input_to_ground, and then press Enter.




4 Choose the ground rigid body by picking the Block part on the left side of the screen.


6 Select the rigid body named input (just left of center).


LocationAt Center

8 Select one of the arcs at the bottom end of the rigid body named input.


Z OrientationNormal Pln

10 Select the largest plane of the rigid body named input.

11 Press the middle mouse button to accept.


Verify that the joint is positioned properly, as shown in Figure 6.

13 If any of the joints do not appear as shown in Figure 6, delete them using the procedure outlined in Step 6 on page 17 and then repeat the steps above to recreate them properly.


25

Figure 6. Your Screen After Creating the Fourth Revolute Joint

Defining the MotionNow that you’ve defined the joints, you can define the motion generator. The motion generator specifies the movement (motion) of one of the rigid bodies. The rigid body named input will rotate at the joint named input_to_ground one full revolution (360 degrees or 6.28 radians) relative to the ground rigid body.

To define the motion:


Set Up MechanismConstraintsMotionCreateOn JointName

2 Using the keyboard, enter input_motion and press Enter.

You apply the motion to the input_to_ground joint.



3 From the DEFINE MOTION menu, select:

JointSel By MenuInput_to_ground

By selecting the revolute joint named input_to_ground, you are specifying that the motion be applied to the rigid body named input relative to ground because this revolute joint connects these two rigid bodies.

You now define the type of motion to be applied to the input_to_ground joint by defining a function that specifies how the movement changes over time. In this case, you want the input rigid body to rotate about the input_to_ground joint at a constant velocity of 6.28 radians/second.

4 From the DEFINE MOTION menu, select:

FunctionVelocityConstant Value

5 Using the keyboard, enter 6.28 and press Enter.

6 From the DEFINE MOTION menu, select Done/Return.

See Figure 7 to verify that you correctly created the motion generator.


27

Figure 7. Your Screen After Creating the Motion Generator

The mechanism definition is now complete. You are now ready to submit the mechanism to ADAMS/Solver for analysis.

4 Simulating and Reviewing Your Mechanism

OverviewIn this lesson, you take the mechanism you created in the previous chapter and simulate it. Then, you review the results of the simulation as animations and perform additional tests on the mechanism.

■ Simulating Your Mechanism, 30

■ Reviewing the Results, 31

■ Select Close., 37

■ Next Step, 37


Simulating and Reviewing Your Mechanism30

Simulating Your MechanismThe mechanism definition is complete and you are now going to submit the mechanism to ADAMS/Solver for analysis.

To proceed with the analysis, ADAMS/Solver requires the following:

■ End time for the simulation.

■ How often results will be output during the simulation. That is, you specify the number of simulation frames to create from time zero to the end time. The number of simulation frames determines the number of frames displayed in the animation.

To simulate your mechanism:


AnalysisAnalysis SetupNumber Of Steps

2 Using the keyboard, enter 15 and press Enter.

3 From the ANALYSIS SETUP menu, select End Time.

4 Using the keyboard, enter 1.0 and press Enter.

5 To show current analysis settings, from the ANALYSIS SETUP menu, select Info.

A list of options for the simulation appear.

6 Select Close.

7 From the ANALYSIS SETUP menu, select Done/Return.

8 From the ANALYSIS menu, select Run Single Analysis.

Another message appears in the lower message window that tells you that the simulation has begun. An auxiliary shell window opens and you can see ADAMS/Solver running in it. After a few moments, the simulation ends.

The shell window closes and MECHANISM/Pro loads the analysis results.

Getting Started Using MECHANISM/Pro Simulating and Reviewing Your Mechanism

31

A final message appears in the message window explaining that MECHANISM/Pro has retrieved the results from the analysis. The analysis is complete and you can now view the results.

9 Select Close.

Reviewing the ResultsIn the following sections, you learn how to investigate the results of the kinematic analysis from within the Pro/ENGINEER environment:

■ Animating the Kinematic Mechanism, 31

■ Viewing the Mechanism at Various Simulation Frames, 32

■ Animating with Collision Checking, 33

■ Animating with Clearance Study, 35

Animating the Kinematic Mechanism

To animate your mechanism:


ResultsAnimation

MECHANISM/Pro starts generating the movie frames. It takes a few seconds for MECHANISM/Pro to complete the operation.

2 From the ANIMATION menu, select Animate.



The following Pro/ENGINEER Animate dialog box appears:

3 Select the Play button to play the animation.

4 Select the Stop button.

5 Select Close.

Viewing the Mechanism at Various Simulation Frames

You can position your mechanism at any of the simulation frames. Your mechanism remains at the designated frame until you specify another frame, perform an animation, or display the original assembly configuration.

To view the mechanism at different frames:

1 From the ANIMATION menu, select Single Frame.

2 To display the second frame, using the keyboard, enter 2, and then press Enter.

3 Repeat Steps 1 and 2 and enter 6, 9, and 10.

4 Select Done/Return.


33

Animating with Collision Checking

You can request collision checking to detect interference, between any two rigid bodies in the assembly, during the animation.

To animate with collision checking:

1 From the RESULT TYPE menu, select:

Collision CheckSelect Rigid BodiesAdd Rigid Body

2 Select the following rigid bodies: ground, input, and follower.

3 From the Select Rigid Body menu, select Done/Return.

You just specified that you are interested in checking collisions among these three rigid bodies and that you are not interested in what happens to the coupler rigid body.

4 From the COLLISION CHECK menu, select:

Run Collision CheckExecute Check

An animation with collision checking begins.

Note that the animation performance during collision checking is slower than normal animations because Pro/ENGINEER performs an interference check at each frame of the simulation.

When the animation ends, an information window appears, showing a collision check report. In the fourbar linkage, the input part interferes with the block part at frames number 12, 13, and 14, as shown in Figure 8.



Figure 8. Collision Check Report

Figure 9. Frame 12 Is First Frame With Interference Detected

5 Select Close.

6 From the RUN COLLISION CHECK menu, select Quit, and then select Done/Return.


35

Animating with Clearance Study

During the collision check, you saw that there is no collision between the input and follower and between follower and ground. You could, however, be interested in the minimum or maximum distance between these rigid bodies. To find out the distances, you perform an animation with a clearance study.

To perform an animation with a clearance study:

1 From the RESULT TYPE menu, select:

Clearance StudyRun Clearance Study

An animation with clearance study begins.

Note again that the animation performance during clearance study is slower than a normal animation because Pro/ENGINEER performs clearance and collision calculations at each frame of the simulation.

When the animation ends, an information window appears, showing a clearance study report as shown in Figure 10. From the clearance study report, you can see that the minimum distance between the rigid bodies input and follower is 41.23 mm at frame 11.

2 Select Close.

MECHANISM/Pro lets you draw a line indicating the minimum or maximum distance between two rigid bodies. In the next step, you’ll specify a line between the minimum distance of the rigid bodies input and follower.

3 From the CLEARANCE STUDY menu, select:

Clearance LinesMin DistanceDraw Clearance LineInput – Follower

MECHANISM/Pro displays the mechanism at frame 11 and draws a red line connecting the closest points of input and follower rigid bodies (see Figure 11).



Figure 10. Clearance Study Report

Figure 11. Frame 11 Where Input and Follower Have Minimum Distance


37

4 Select Close.

5 Select Done/Return.

Ending the Tutorial

To exit the tutorial:

■ From the Pro/ENGINEER File menu, select:

ExitYes

Next StepYou completed a few of the most common operations in MECHANISM/Pro. Now use the online guide, Using MECHANISM/Pro, as a reference to the many features of MECHANISM/Pro.

Getting Started Using MECHANISM/Pro Index

39

Index

A - BAnalysis, example of performing 30

Animationexample of 31example of stepping through frames 32with clearance checking 33with clearance study 35

Assembly, example of opening 7Automatic method, example of using 10

Benefits of using MECHANISM/Pro 2

C - DClearance study, example of 35

Collision checking, example of 33

Constraintsexample of creating 13–25example of deleting 17, 25

Creatingconstraints, example of 13–25revolute joints, example of 14–25

Deleting constraints, example of 17, 25

K - LKinematic mechanism, example of defining 9–27


Index40

M - NMECHANISM/Pro

benefits of using 2described 2how to learn 3

Message window, about 14

Motion, example of defining 25

O - POpening assembly, example of 7Orienting joint, example of 16

Parts, example of selecting 15

Q - RRetrieving assembly, example of 7Revolute joint, examples of creating 14–25

Rigid bodiesexample of creating 10See also Ground rigid body

S - TSelecting parts, example of 15

Simulation, example of performing 30

Tutorial, running through 5–37

W - ZWindows, message 14

getting started using mechanism/pro

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