Dear all,
I have modeled two spheres that I would like to constrain to each other. The first sphere is fixed and the other one shall be able to rotate around the first one in all directions (x,y,z) but within limited angles. They shall have the same centre of rotation.
I started by making the origins coincident. I constrained the planes of the spheres under advanced mates with a limited angle (ex; angle 0, max angle 120, min angle -20). First two planes works fine but when I try to constrain the third plane I get an error message saying that the constrain cannot be solved or that the assembly will be over constrained. What shall I use instead? Is there another way of doing this?
When I have succeeded with constraining I will connect a rod to the sphere that can be rotated. It is really important that the rod can be rotated within specified angles only.
Best regards,
Jenny
Jenny,
I didn't open your assembly, but I think your problem is that you are trying to use Cartesian coordinate constraints when you really need polar coordinates. I imagine that SolidWorks gets all bound up when it tries to rotate the third plane around one of its axes.
You might try adding the rod and then using a point on the rod axis to define your limits. If, for example, you wanted to limit your rod to within 30 degrees of vertical, you could limit a point at the end of the rod to be more than R*cos(30 deg) from the horizontal axis.
Jerry Steiger