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Tutorial 2: Assembly and SolidWorks Motion Dept. of Mechanical Engineering 22.321 Mechanical Design I Written by: Gregg Merlino 9/22/2009 Revised by: Ryan McDonagh 8/29/2013 Objectives: This tutorial describes the techniques used to create an assembly in SolidWorks and perform a motion analysis. Prerequisites: This tutorial assumes the user has completed Tutorial 1: SolidWorks Modeling and Drawing and has modeled each part of the linkage. Task 1: Creating the Assembly Open all of your parts in SolidWorks, including pins and bearings. Pick one of the parts and begin an assembly from the part by clicking File, Make Assembly from Part In the Assembly screen, you will notice a list of all your parts on the left-hand side of the screen, similar to Figure 1. (If all of you parts are not there, you should use the Browse button to locate them.)

Figure 1. Begin Assembly Window Click on the base plate and drag it into the workspace. To place the part, click on a desired location in the workspace. If additional parts are needed, click on Insert Components

in the Assembly tab at the top of the window and repeat the same procedure to

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place the parts in the workspace. Once the parts have been added, they will float in space as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Imported Parts in SolidWorks Prior to Assembly Relationships need to be established in order to create the linkage. The method of creating these relationships in SolidWorks is called mating.

To illustrate, select the outer cylindrical surface of a bearing and click on the Mate button in the Assembly tab. The parameters for the mate feature will open in the property manager on the left side of the screen. Next, select the surface on the inside of the base plate. Click the green check mark to accept the mate. The default mate created is concentric and is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Example of Concentric Mate

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The next mate needed will be a coincident mate, meaning the parts will share the same plane.

Select the back of the base plate and the back face of the bearing and create a mate between them. Repeat this process for each part until the assembly is completed. The only needed mates to create the linkage are coincident and concentric mates. Remove any unused parts from your workspace. Once completed, you will have a fully functional fourbar linkage with bearings and pins, similar to Figure 4.

Figure 4. Assembly After Mating You can change the appearance of your links to obtain a better visual representation of your linkage by clicking on the link and then clicking on the Color button. Figure 5 shows the changes made to the link appearance after clicking the Color button.

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Figure 5: Linkage After Change of Appearance

Task 2: Assembly Drawings Click File, Make Drawing From Assembly. (Note: You may be prompted to save the file before it is inserted into the drawing). A Sheet Format/Size option box will appear. Uncheck the box next to Only show standard format. Choose A (ANSI) Landscape and click OK. This drawing size is made to fit on an 8.5 by 11 paper. You may have to change the units back to the IPS system. To do this, click the Options button from the top menu bar. Select the Document Properties tab and select Units from the list on the left. Choose IPS and click OK.

Click the View Layout tab and then the Model View icon in the top toolbar. In the options that appear on the left, there is a Part/Assembly to Insert box. If your assembly is already open, double click the desired assembly. If not, click Browse, find your assembly and click OK. A new menu will appear on the left. Select *Front and click in the middle of the drawing area to place the view. Click ESC. To create a Bill of Materials, go to the top menu bar and select Insert>Tables>Bill of Materials. Next, click the view in the drawing window. (An orange dashed box should appear around the view). In the Bill of Materials tree on the left side of the screen, select the settings shown in Figure 6. (They should be default settings).

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Figure 6. Bill of Materials Settings Place the Bill of Materials in the desired location on the drawing. The Bill of Materials is essentially a shopping list that you would take to the hardware store before manufacturing the linkage. The columns required in the Bill of Materials are the Item Name, Description, and Quantity. These columns should automatically be in the Bill of Materials when it is inserted into the drawing. If not, columns can be added to the Bill of Materials. To do this, highlight a column by clicking the top of the column and then right click the column. Select Insert>Column Right. Adjust your table according to the number of parts required for the assembly. To add a row highlight a row and right click. Select Insert>Row Below. Edit the cells in the Bill of Materials as needed. To label parts, click the Balloon button in the Annotations tab. Then, click on all of the parts in the drawing and it will automatically number them based on which item number the part is in the Bill of Materials. 5

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Make sure to edit the Title block to the precision described in Tutorial 1. Save the drawing and return to the assembly.

In the Assembly tab, click the Exploded View icon . This command will allow the parts to separate so they can all be seen. Select the part on top. Click on the blue arrow that appears and drag it away from the assembly as seen in Figure 7a. Repeat this procedure with all parts until all parts can be seen. Your screen should look similar to Figure 7b.

(a) (b) Figure 7: (a) Creating an Exploded Assembly (b) Final Exploded Assembly Click the green check mark to accept the changes. Click File, Make Drawing From Assembly. (Note: You may be prompted to open the drawing you have already created. Select No). A Sheet Format/Size option box will appear. Uncheck the box next to Only show standard format. Choose A (ANSI) Landscape and click OK. This drawing size is made to fit on an 8.5 by 11 paper. You may have to change the units back to the IPS system. To do this, click the Options button from the top menu bar. Select the Document Properties tab and select Units from the list on the left. Choose IPS and click OK.

Click the Model View icon in the top tool bar. In the options that appear on the left, there is a Part/Assembly to Insert box. If your assembly is already open, double click the desired assembly. If not, click Browse, find your assembly, and click OK. A new menu will appear on the left. Select *Isometric and click in the middle of the drawing to place the view. Click ESC. Right click on the assembly and select Show in Exploded State if the assembly is not in an exploded state already. Click OK.

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To create a Bill of Materials, go to the top menu bar and select Insert>Tables>Bill of Materials. Follow the same procedure previously mentioned earlier in this tutorial to create a Bill of Materials for this drawing. To label parts, click the Balloon button in the Annotations tab and follow the same procedures previously mentioned to number the parts. Make sure to edit the Title block to the precision described in Tutorial 1. Save the drawing with a different name than the assembly drawing and return to the assembly. To return the model to its original state, go to the Configurations tab in the model tree. Expand all views until ExplView is visible. Double click ExplView. The model should return to its normal state. Change the View Orientation to Front by clicking on the z-axis.

Task 3: SolidWorks Motion Analysis After the assembly has been created, a motion analysis can be performed. In the Options icon on the top toolbar, click the drop-down menu and select addins, as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8. Add-Ins Detail Check the SolidWorks motion box and click OK, as shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9. Add-Ins Feature At the bottom of the screen, select the Motion Study 1 tab (the interface may need to be dragged out if its been minimized before). After the motion analysis component has been added, a new option in the Types of Study drop down menu (on the upper left hand corner) will appear. Select Motion Analysis, as shown in Figure 10. Figure 10 shows the options available in the motion analysis feature of SolidWorks.

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Figure 10. Motion Analysis Interface Next, select a motor by clicking the Motor icon in the motion analysis screen. Select the desired part to be set in motion, the motor speed, and the direction. Figure 11 shows the motor control interface.

Figure 11. Motor Control Interface Once the motor has been selected, the motion of the linkage must be analyzed by clicking the Calculate icon found in the motion analysis screen. (See Figure 10). To plot displacement, each of the preceding steps must be performed. After the motion study analysis is finished, the X-Y plot function can be used to calculate relative position. Open the X-Y plot window in motion analysis by selecting the icon to begin plot sequence. Follow the selections shown in Figure 12 to plot the displacement of the coupler relative to the pin on the crank.

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Tracked Point Reference Point

Figure 12. Plot Parameters Window The plot of the displacement of the coupler relative to the pin on the crank is shown in Figure 13. (For the crank to complete a full rotation, the rotation period must be greater than six seconds: the default time is 5 seconds). The length of time can be adjusted by dragging the time line bar to the desired time period.

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Drag line to adjust time period

Figure 13. Plot Display from Motion Analysis To export the data, right click on the plot and click Export CSV. The data is saved in a *.csv file that can be opened in excel. To save a video of the linkage, click the Save Animation button save your video as a *.avi, *.bmp, or *.tga file. .You will have the option to

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