About Swept Volumes

Swept volumes collectively plot and connect the position of specific products or parts at each step of the simulation to obtain a smooth three-dimensional body. You can use swept volumes to estimate and visualize the motion of geometries from one or several bodies during the mechanism simulation.

A sweep collectively plots the position of the selected part at each step in the simulation, then connects the discrete position plots with continuous geometry based on the specified interpolation options. The result is a smooth three-dimensional body.

Note: The swept volume can interpolate the positions of the mechanism between increments to generate a smoother shape.

A swept volume is defined by one or several bodies associated with existing products, and according to a reference marker. By default, the reference marker is a stationary, universal reference marker used to represent the true motion of the selected elements in a three-dimensional space.

You can specify another marker from a different moving product of the active mechanism as the reference point. In this case, the generated swept volume represents the motion of the elements according to the relative motion of the reference part or product.

Note: Modifying the reference marker can change the shape of the generated swept volume.

The following figure illustrates the swept volume of a pendulum:

You can generate the swept volume of a product or part according to the following parameters:

  • Filtering Positions
  • Wrapping
  • Simplification
The parameters are taken into account during the computation of the analysis case referencing the active mechanism.

 

See Also
More help on this topic
Generating Swept Volumes