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Animator

Animator

Animator

(OP)
I'm a new user to SolidWorks Animator (2007 SP 3.1). I have an assembly that has 60+ bolts and nuts that were assembled as a local circle pattern. When I animate the assembly, the bolts don't move properly. When I open the animator tab I get a "time zero keys... that cannot be reached" error. If I accept the prompt to repair the bolts end up out of position. I'm not sure what that means. Any ideas? It looks to me that the way around this is to mate each bolt and nut separately. Is this the correct approach? Thanks for the help. Dave

RE: Animator

Ug.  Welcome to Animator.  This is a very buggy module, so I don't have any specific advice for what you're seeing except to try creating a new animation (right click animation tab at the bottom and select the option) and then to delete the old one.

Adding more mates is rarely the way to go with Animator.  I normally suggest people start a new assembly for animating, since design and animation are at cross purposes to one another.

You could save your current assembly as a part file and then delete everything you don't need (all parts that are not your fasteners).  Then bring in the patterned fasteners as a single part with no more than three mates and that should work much better.

Think simplification of possible parts and the movement of those parts when animating.

Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all.  And awe transcends reason.

RE: Animator

(OP)
Thank Jeff - no only is your advice sound but logical as well. I kinda came to the same conclusion but resolved it differently. I simply supressed the fasteners since they had no effect on the animation. Thanks - Dave

RE: Animator

That's a great way to go, too.  Simplify, simplify. ..

Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all.  And awe transcends reason.

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