I'm new to Inventor but not new to 3D modeling. Just purchased Inventor 8 and am working on my first project.

I am 99% complete on this project. I just have one part that is very complex. I need a part to move one direction at a specified rotation of another part. Then it needs to move the opposite direction at another spedified rotation of the other part. In real life this would be achieved by kenetic forces since the objects would be moving in the correct direction. But Inventor does not take kenetic forces into account and in fact allows the parts to stop and move back in the opposite direction even though there are no forces or constraints causing them to change direction. So, I figure I need a mate constraint that will turn on for 1 degree of rotation and force the part to keep going in the right direction. Kind of like turning on an electro magnet for a split second to get things moving in the right direction. Then it needs to supress again for the rest of the rotation so it does not impede the progress of the rest of the movements.

How can I turn on a mate constraint at a certain time and then turn it back off again for the rest of the time? Or is there a better way to do this. Like I said, new to Inventor so I do not know all the capabilities yet.

Thank you for your help
Bill Wimberley

You need Animator For Inventor. Version 4 is in beta at sdotson.com. This is charity ware so go ahead, download and enjoy.

That was quick. Thanks. Will Animator allow a constraint to be turned on at a specific time and then turned back off? Or is there some other method that I am not thinking of?

Animator will do this. That's why Charles (Spong Bob there), me and Neil Munro wrote it: To fill a gap in what IV is missing.

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Sean Dotson, PE
RND Automation & Engineering
Free 30 day trial of iPropWiz v5
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Ok, downloaded and installed Animator 4. By the way, it looks like it will be a great program. Here is the deal though. It appears that in order for it to work on a constraint the constraint has to be unsupressed prior to starting the animation. If the constraint is supressed prior to starting the animation then Animator does not unsupress it. It does change the values of the constraint but since the constraint remains supressed then it has no affect on the animation.

In order for this animation to work certain constraints must be supressed prior to starting the animation. If they are unsupressed prior to a certain point in the animation then it causes other constraints to have problems. So I cannot unsupress them prior to starting the animation.

Am I missing something here or is what I am trying to do beyond the abilities of Animator?

Also, the help file states that Esc will stop the animation sequence but no matter how many times I press Esc the animation continues to then end of all sequences. Currently I have 25 sequences that span 720 degrees of rotation.

Bill,

We are aware of this limitation and I'm currently doing some rather major revisions that will enable much more control of constraint suppression. Look for an update in about a week.

Neil

Hey Neil. Nice to have you here...

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Cory
-----------------------------------
Mechanix Design Solutions
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@mcadguy

Nice to be here, but probably as a MCAD Lurker forever <g>.

Neil

Any progress on that Animator update?

I'll email Neil and find out...

_________________
Sean Dotson, PE
RND Automation & Engineering
Free 30 day trial of iPropWiz v5
Follow @seandotson & @mcadforums & @rndautomationon Twitter

As usual, what looks to be a small change is ten times larger than it initially appears . I'm close to getting the guts of the update finished but I'll have to go back and look at file load and save issues and also fix a couple of other bugs that have been identified.

The changes involve making control of suppressing/unsuppressing constraints much more powerful (you now have complete control). Unfortunately, this change will result in a file format change to V4 files. Older version files will still load into V4 but V4 files saved in earlier versions of the beta will not be loadable in the new version .

Look for a new beta near the end of this week (I'm also pressed for spare time at the moment).

Hey, just like ADSK beta software

_________________
Sean Dotson, PE
RND Automation & Engineering
Free 30 day trial of iPropWiz v5
Follow @seandotson & @mcadforums & @rndautomationon Twitter

Ahhhh the sign of truly professional software...
You've graduated!!!

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Bill Bogan
B2 Design
http://www.b2-design.biz
I'm thinkin' about it....

We'll at least the old adage you get what you pay for still applies...