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Take Inventor Assembly Constraints to the Max — and Min
13 Jan, 2011 By: John HackneyIMAGINiT Tricks Tutorial: Add limits to assembly constraints in Autodesk Inventor 2011.
Editor's note: This tutorial courtesy of IMAGINiT Technologies.
When working in assemblies, the designer would often like to flex some of the assembly constraints within a predetermined range of motion. You could accomplish this with a drive constraint, but that may be too much for just a quick motion check. This is a great opportunity to use Inventor assembly constraint limits and physically drag your constrained components through the range of motion.
The constraint limits can be found by selecting the double chevron in the lower right corner of the Place Constraint dialog box.
Limits are available for the following constraint types:
- Mate
- Flush
- Angle (Undirected Angle and Explicit Reference Vector only)
- Tangent
- Insert.
Most of these will be very easy to apply, but I will caution you: The angle constraint limits may have you scratching your head.
The Maximum check box allows you to enter the maximum range of the constraint. For example, if you are mating two parts and you want to drag them apart a maximum of 2 inches, you would check the box labeled Maximum and enter 2 inches. By the same token, if you wish to limit your motion on the minimum side of the constraint, say to .5 inch, simply check the box marked Minimum and enter that distance.
If the check box labeled Use Offset as Resting Position is selected, the program will return the constraint value back to the offset value you entered when you created the constraint. For example, you have a mate constraint in your assembly with the minimum value set to .5 inch, the maximum value is set to 2 inches, and your offset value is .5 inch. Left-click and drag the moveable part, then release it, and it will return to a .5 inch offset. A word of caution: The offset value must be equal to one of the other limit range values or somewhere between them. In my example, the offset is equal to the minimum limit's value.
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