Creating Universal Joints

You can create a universal joint to rotate two bodies at fixed or varying angles of intersection, and about two axes.

Note: A universal joint is not a constant-velocity joint.
Important: It is not possible to use a driver on a universal joint.

This task shows you how to:

See Also
About Joints

Specify the Definition Properties

  1. From the Mechanism section of the action bar, click Joint .
  2. In the dialog box, select Universal 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. Select one of the following sequences as the rotation sequence:
    • X-Y
    • Y-Z
    • Z-X
    • Y-X
    • Z-Y
    • X-Z
  6. Optional: In the States table, specify values to control the joint motion. To do so, in each row:
    1. Select the Min check box to enable a lower bound in a specific direction.
    2. Select the Nominal check box to enable an initial value.
    3. Select the Max check box to enable an upper bound in a specific direction.

    Notes:
    • Each row corresponds to a translation or rotation degree of freedom. The number of rows depend on the joint type.
    • If the lower and upper limits are not applicable, no check box appears in the corresponding row or column.

Specify the Conic Properties

  1. In the Conic limit section of the dialog box, select the Enabled check box to constraint the angle between the cone axis and the tangent at the contact point (if the tangent exists).
  2. Specify a maximum angle value in degrees, between 0 deg and 180 deg.
  3. Select the cone axis on which to apply the upper bound.

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.