Previewing the Motion of Mechanisms

You can animate bodies and component assemblies by controlling the degrees of freedom of the joints enforced in the mechanism.

This task shows you how to:

Before you begin: Create a mechanism for a physical product or component assembly.

 

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Creating Mechanisms

Animate the Mechanism

  1. Optional: To select the degrees of freedom to animate:
    1. Click Manage Controlled DOFs to show the list of degrees of freedom you can control in the mechanism.
    2. From the list, select the degrees of freedom to display in the Control View section of the dialog box.
    3. Optional: Click and select Select all or Clear all selections to select or clear every check box.
    4. Click Manage Controlled DOFs to go back to the previous dialog box.
    The selected degrees of freedom appear in the dialog box.
  2. To modify the value of a degree of freedom , you can either:
    • Move the slider.
    • Enter a value in the box.
      Note: For a joint defined manually, specify a value included between its minimum and maximum limits.
    • Use the arrows next to the box.

    Note:
    • The default value of the slider corresponds to the nominal value of the joint.
    • The minimum and maximum values of the degree of freedom cannot be exceeded. If no minimum or maximum value is specified at the creation of the joint, default values are applied.
    Notes:
    • You cannot control or animate gear, rack, and cable joints.
    • You can only control the translation degree of freedom of a screw joint.

  3. Optional: To lock or unlock the value of a degree of freedom , click Lock DOF or Unlock DOF .

    Note: To lock or unlock every controlled degree of freedom , at the top of the dialog box, click Lock All or Unlock All .

  4. Click .

    The initial value of the degrees of freedom is restored.