About Mechanisms

You can create a mechanism based on an existing assembly of products, or with no associated product.

If you create a mechanism from an active product, a body is generated for each product, and a joint for each mate enforced in the mechanism. Markers are created automatically on the bodies to define the position and orientation of the joints.

In the tree, bodies and joints are created at the same location as their corresponding products or mates.

The elements from the product assembly are associated to the mechanism elements. If you modify a product or mate, the bodies and joints are updated accordingly following the update of the mechanism.

You can create a mechanism using one or more mates in a product. You can create multiple mechanisms under the same product by selecting either some or all of the mates in the product.

If you modify the assembly, you must update the mechanism.

In the tree, mechanisms appear under the Mechanisms entry. A mechanism includes specific components (such as bodies, joints, or drivers), and unique mechanism features (such as gravity).

To create a mechanism under a product, you must define the product as the active product. You can create several mechanisms under the same product. The active mechanism of an active product is considered as the current mechanism.

The name of the active mechanism appears in bold in the tree.

By default:

• The active product is the root product.
• The active mechanism is the first mechanism under the active product.

To define another mechanism as the active mechanism, right-click the mechanism in the tree and set it as current.

Set a mechanism as the active mechanism to:

• Visualize the mechanism.
• Edit the mechanism.
• Create new elements in the mechanism.
• Visualize the kinematic motion of the mechanism (mechanism motion without applied or external forces).
• Compute the dynamic simulation of the mechanism by considering the applied and external forces.