Animation of a series of hinges

[Algis]

I have a series of door leaves that are hinged together (like a bifold door, except more leaves). I want to animate the staged opening of the door from a 'stacked' position to fully stretched out. I would like to script the animation so that the first hinge opens fully without affecting the other hinges. Once the first hinge is fully opened, the others would be scripted to be opened.

The assembly is flexible, I have hinge mates and I utilize a motor in the animation for each hinge. The problem is that opening the first hinge will have an effect of slightly opening (or closing the second and so on). This occurs because when the stack is rotated by the first hinge, Solidworks has a habit of maintaining its orientation, this way the second hinge is unintentionally opened by the movement of the first.

How do I effectively interlock or prevent the other hinges from opening for an animation?

 

[Algis]

To clarify, I have a series of hinges. A hinge connected to a hinge connected to a hinge etc. Each hinge set with limits of 0-180 deg. The opening of one hinge has a whacky effect on the others. How to independently open up each whilst keeping the others fixed? For both animating and simple viewing purposes.

 

[Algis]

It appears that the best way to go about this is to use the mate controller (under Insert-->Mate Controller). I'll investigate and confirm if this works.

 

[Algis]

To confirm: Mater Controller is what you would use for a number of supported advanced mates.

With it, I can script a number of position key points. For example, at Position 1, Hinge1 is at 0deg, Hinge 2 is at 0 deg etc - I can then set Position 2 to be Hinge 1 at 180 deg, Hinge 2 at 0 deg etc.

This feature was apparently introduced in Solidworks 2016.