Mechanisim - sub-assy's

[davehaigh]

I have an assembly with a mechanism, I can drag the components in the assembly and everything works as expected.

When I place that into a higher level assembly, I get an error when I try to drag at that level.

To complicate thing even more, I have a manikin in the higher level. I can't position limbs, look at or reach anything as long as the mechanism sub-assembly is there. If I suppress the mechanism sub assy, then I can manipulate the manikin.

Any ideas?

David Haigh
Phone: 925-424-3931
Fax: 925-423-7496
Lawrence Livermore National Lab
7000 East Ave, L-362
Livermore, CA 94550


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[PatrickMcGee]

Hi David,
When a mechanism fails only in the higher level assembly it usually means that there's something in that assy causes it fail. What's not evident is that it could be something completely unrelated to the mechanism, for instance it could be a failed component placement of another component or sub-component. Look at your message log to see if you have other errors/warnings that could cause problems.

Also, do you have other components that are using references from your mechanized sub-assy? Don't forget to maintain body/ground relationships (i.e. don't use references from 2 different bodies to place a component).

One trick I found to solve these issues is to suppress all components except the mechanized sub-assy and then resume one after the other until I find the guilty one.

It could also be because your higher assembly is so much bigger than your sub-assy that the mechanism precision is too small to allow the mechanism to connect. Try changing the relative tolerance in the mechanism settings dialog box (Depend on the WF version, but try right-click on MECHANISM in the mechanism model tree to access the settings). Of course, that's not the recommended solution but it may be the only that works.


Regards,

Patrick McGee, Eng.
Mechanical System Designer
Mechanical Systems
Hardware Engineering - Military, Dept 3B
CAE