1st post from me as I've switched into a role using hands-on SW more than I have for years and I'm finding despite SW help, my experience and intuition, some things just don't work first time This one seems too simple to not work - so I've registered here to ask about it - looks like a useful forum.
In the component direction section of adding a linear motor to a Motion Study, I can't seem to select the assembly planes (Front, Top, Right) in SW2010 .I've attached a screenshot of a simplified example showing my issue. I want to obtain horizontal or vertical motion in a model that doesn't have any faces constrained to that direction. So in the direction section in this model, for up/down I can select the cylinder top face. But for left/right and fwd/back, I should be able to choose Front (or Right), to move the cylinder.
Am I missing something and you can select the x axis/front plane? If not, how do you do this (without creating unused surfaces)?
Thanks in advance,
PS I will add IMO the help is generally unhelpful. It neglects to tell the user what fields in the interface will/won't let you do. Google/colleagues/training is required more than should be strictly necessary.
The easiest way for you to do this is to model a block representing the X, Y and Z directions and reference this block in your linear motor selection. You can fix the block in your Featuremanager tree in SW, and hide it during the motion animation.
Unfortunately, SW does not allow planes for selection for motor directional reference, although that should really be possible. I checked in 2012 as well.