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"Flexing" plastic latches and living hinges

"Flexing" plastic latches and living hinges

"Flexing" plastic latches and living hinges

(OP)
I have an assembly for a container that consists of to halves. I want to be able to open and close it using physical dynamics to check clearances, however in order to get past the latch, I have to turn physical dynamics off, then close it just past the latches, then turn it back on.
Is there a way to either make the latches flex, like they will do in the actual part, or to make solidworks just ignore the latches so I can check the interlocking lip of the container.
On another note, is there a way to make a living hinge that will act like it's supposed to in solidworks?

RE: "Flexing" plastic latches and living hinges

davidinindy,
Give the hinge part an angle control. Then create configurations with different angles. We do this for our hinges in an assembly, which is not a living hinge.

Bradley

RE: "Flexing" plastic latches and living hinges

We use gear mates in the advanced options of 'mates' to check rotor mesh to have things move relative to each other.  You could also establish a mate along the edge of two halves fix one half and use the rotate command in assemblies to move it around the edge mate.

RE: "Flexing" plastic latches and living hinges

This may be a good application for a multibody part.  Model the moving psrts as bodies separate from the main body.  Control the moving body positon with a Move/Copy, connect the bodies with a loft for the living hinge, and then Combine into a final single body.

"When everyone is thinking alike, no one is thinking very much." --Eckhard Schwarz (1930--2004)
http://www.EsoxRepublic.com

RE: "Flexing" plastic latches and living hinges

Anytime I have seen a living hinge was with a thin Sketch profile controlled by an Angular dimension. You can change that dimension right there in the part and do a rebuild to get the model to update. I have found this to work the best so far.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
http://www.3dvisiontech.com
http://www.scottjbaugh.com

For all Newbie's - Welcome to the nerd herd!

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