About Mechanism Update

You can update a product to synchronize the mechanism with the latest version of its related features.

This page discusses:

Modifying a feature in a mechanism can affect the definition of one or several features from another mechanism. For example, the following modifications can impact the definition of a body or joint used in another mechanism:
  • Modifying the position or geometry of a product.
  • Modifying the type and constraints of an engineering connection.

Use the mechanism update process to:

  • Synchronize the elements of a mechanism, such as joints, bodies, and markers with the modified assembly features.
  • Ensure that all motion elements are consistent with their definition.
    Note: For a driver referencing a joint, if the joint type changes, the driver is updated to take into account the degrees of freedom of the new joint type.

Before playing a mechanism using the Kinematics Player , verify that the product assembly and its associated elements, such as bodies and joints, are up to date. For more information, see Updating Mechanisms.

Update Definition

The update lets you synchronize your model with the latest version of any PLM objects included in the model.

A global update lets you:

  • Synchronize the external relations of a mechanism by propagating the changes from the PLM model to the mechanism elements.
  • Perform a local update of all mechanism elements.
  • Synchronize the motion relations.

You can update different external references between two mechanism features.

Feature 1 Feature 2 Update Results
Body Product Updates the body position.
Marker Axis System Updates the marker position so that it corresponds to the axis system position.
Joint Geometry No impact.
Joint Engineering Connection Updates the type, parameters, and generated markers of the joint.

Update Status

In the tree, you can visualize the status of a mechanism feature. Depending on the status, an update or synchronization mask appears on the mechanism feature icon.

Icon Description Feature Status
Update status of the feature The feature is:
  • out-of-date and synchronized.
  • out-of-date and unsynchronized.
Synchronization status of the feature relation The feature is up-to-date and unsynchronized.

Up-to-date and synchronized features appear with no mask on their icon.

A new mechanism feature is considered as up-to-date but unsynchronized. The mask appears on the icon.