Wheels on curved rail

[T1936]

Hi,

I am trying to make an assembly with a set of wheels that can be rolled (or moved) along a section of curved rail.

I need to be able to roll the wheels back and forth for demonstration.

It is possible to do this? I have tried various relationships but have not been able to get this to behave properly.

Here is a an image of what I am trying to do....

http://www.warris.com/images/wheels.jpg

The wheel on the outside rail needs to be joined so it will roll along the curve.

Thanks.

 

[CADSkills]

The cam mate should basically do what your asking.

Solidworks 2005
Solid Edge V17

 

[T1936]

Thats what I was hoping, but I can not get it to work. It needs to be a closed loop, like a cam, for this to work, and since it isn't a loop but a length of rail it can not place this relationship. Unless I am doing something wrong.

T.

 

[claudiodeviaje]

Did you find a solution for this problem?
I need a pin to follow an "open" rail, which is made of many curved planes. The CAM function requires a closed surface in order to work. I've tried to "close" it, but wasn't able.
The only thing that almost worked was the TANGENT function. But since it allows just single curves, the pin won't follow the whole curve, but single pieces of it.

Has someone found a way to make a body follow open curves?

Cheers!
Claudio

 

[PatCouture]

I don't understand why you are saying that the cam function requires a closed surface in order to work! I created a profile with different surfaces changing from a line to an arc to a curve (tangent with each other) and the CAM function worked perfectly. Since you select only the faces you want for the relationship SE doesn't require any closed loop. Am I missing something?

Patrick
SE V19

 

[T1936]

No, I was never able to get this to work so I went a different direction with the drawing. It was for a presentation and I was able to do it with a straight length of rail.

I too was getting the message that the loop has to be closed to work.

Patrick, was your example similar to what I was doing in the link above? I would love to hear how you got it to work as this is something I need to do often.

Tim

 

[PatCouture]

Oh I'm sorry I didn't even looked at the picture, my bad!!! For what I see you need the cam relationship to work in a manner that will control the position of your rail moving in let's say the "x and y" coordinate when you are looking from the top instead of moving in "z".
Can you create a construction surface that would be kind of a guiding wheel rotating perpendicularly from your existing wheel (just like a roller coaster) then you would be able to use the cam relationship in that plane to control the position of your wheels.

Patrick