Creating Rigid Joints

You can create a rigid joint to fix a body to another.

This task shows you how to:

See Also
About Joints

Define the Properties

  1. From the Mechanism section of the action bar, click Joint .
  2. In the dialog box, select Rigid from the list of joint types.
  3. In the Definition section of the dialog box, select the two markers between which to create the joint.
    1. Click the From marker box and select a marker in the work area.
    2. Click the To marker box and select a marker in the work area.

    Tips:
    • To edit the selected markers, click and select Edit. The Markers dialog box opens.
    • To modify your selection, click and select Clear selection. You can select another marker in the work area or in the tree.

  4. Optional: To create the joint using a new marker:
    1. Click Create a new marker .

      Tip: You can also click and select Create a new marker.

    2. In the tree, select the body on which to create the marker.
    3. In the Markers dialog box, define the marker.

      For more information, see Creating Markers.

    The new marker appears in the tree and the name of the marker appears in the box.
  5. Enter a position value for the element along the x, y, and z-axis.
  6. Select one of the following rotation sequences:

    • Extrinsic: Rotations that apply to an axis in the world coordinate system. The orientation follows the x, y, and finally the z-axis.
    • Euler: Three angles that describe the orientation of a rigid body with respect to a fixed coordinate system. The orientation follows the z, x', and finally the z'"-axis.
    • Cardan: Rotation sequence from angular orientation data. The orientation follows the x, y', and finally the z"-axis.

  7. Specify a value for each orientation angle.
  8. In the tree, the joint appears under the Joints node.

Edit the Joint

  1. To edit a joint, in the tree, do one of the following:
    • Double-click a joint.
    • Right-click a joint and select Definition from the object menu.
  2. In the dialog box, edit the joint parameters.
  3. Click OK.

    Note: To modify the general properties or graphical properties of the element, right-click the element in the tree and select Properties. For more information, see Displaying Properties.