Hi all, I'm studying a variation of Archimedes' trammel with curves instead of straight lines along which the slider will slide. For instance, the endpoints of the solid red line segment are constrained to be on the orange curves (the dashed lines have no role in the orange block aside from defining the tangents of the spline curves (they have lots of points, so curvature is not too sharp; I also tried removing most of the points, to no avail); the grey circle is also no longer relevant, although if the red trammel is instead constrained on the dashed lines, the red circle will roll without slipping on it). The blue arm is constrained to be in-line with the midpoint of the red trammel and rotates about the center of the orange circle. I can move the red trammel just fine by clicking and dragging, but when I try to start a motion analysis with either a motor or a torque actuating the blue arm, it simply does not start (no errors are displayed). Is this because Motion Analysis simply does not support point-on-curve constraints, even though one can drag them? I can "run" an animation, but nothing even moves, and I want Motion Analysis calculations!
Thanks,
Caleb
It really seems like you can't use the constraint with spline-based blocks. However, if you need such a constraint (i.e., modelling a cam without a contact), you can use a path mate - however, this doesn't work with blocks, so you have to make actual parts.