Wheels On Rail!!

[Jaynen]

Hello

I am having big time difficulties getting a set of wheels to run along a rail. The rail goes through different radius' and I need to have the wheel assembly run along the rail to make sure the wheels dont hit. Everything is flexable and I know the desing works. I try physical motion and it wont go through the rail. I can place the wheel assembly at certain points in the rail so it works in all different stages, i just wanna be able to drag it through the rail and watch it move. I try tangent align for the wheel to the rail and I can only do one section at a time because once the rail bends it counts as a different section and its not part of what I aligned. I just wanna know if u can have wheels travel along a rail with curves!! I would post a pic but i dont really want to reveil the design. Should I be using a different program? Thanks

 

[PatCouture]

There is a CAM relationship that is built to do exactly what you need, Check it out! If you have some sort of problem with it come back and I'll explain much further how it works.

Good luck

Patrick

 

[swertel]

Patrick is correct. That CAM mate should work with this.

New to v19 is also the gear and motion relationships. Although the CAM mate describes your situation better, there is the potential that the new relationships can be used to simulate your motion.

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[Jaynen]

Hey guys I tried the cam relationship and I feel so stupid. Everything worked perfectly, thanks so much!

 

[KENAT]

Don't feel stupid.

I've been using since V5 but frequently find new ways of doing things that have been introduced at some point or just that I hadn't had reason to use before. As long as they keep improving SE we'll all never stop learning.

Ken

 

[T1936]

I have tried to do the same thing, but have been unsuccessful in establishing a cam relationship, it seems that the cam (rail) has to be a closed loop to work properly.

Am I missing something?

 

[swertel]

No, you are correct. The surfaces need to be a tangent-continuous closed loop. Even a closed loop that appears to be tangent, but didn't have a tangent relationship added to the connection of two sketch elements when extruded sometimes causes errors.

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[T1936]

Thanks for the confirmation. That takes me back to the original question (my apologies for taking over the thread) How would you simulate wheels on rail?

I am in need of simulating equipment on railroad track, which needs to follow through curves, but is not following a closed loop.

Tim

 

[Jaynen]

Okay I did all my testing but now I wanna do the final test. I am building a roller coaster wheel assembly. The wheels are concave so that they hug the rail perfectly. I was using flat wheels with a square rail before thats how I got the CAM relationship to work. But now I go for the CAM relationship and I cant even select that surface nor any other relationship for that matter. How do I get a concave wheel to hug a rail? Should I switch programs? I dont even know what other programs offer. I need a program with a twist command which I have searched everywhere in Solid Edge for and cant find for making track segments. Does anyone know if Solid works would be better for this kind of thing?

 

[fredericmenage]

Hi,

It needs to be tangent but not closed.

I tried (V19 sp2) to create a cam relationship between a cylindrical part and a set of three connected and tangent surfaces (based on three tangent arcs) forming an open set of surfaces and it worked fine.

As per Jaynen last post: can you modify your surface to create a small cylindrical surface to be used in your cam relationship ?

Fred

 

[Jaynen]

I am just having some troubles understanding. So I got a picture of what I am trying to do. There is much more involved with this wheel assembly, its just to show the basics.

 

[fredericmenage]

Hi,

Check this image:

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/7759/smallcylinderforcamrelars0.jpg

HTH,

Fred

 

[fredericmenage]

Sorry, too small:

2nd try:

http://img323.imageshack.us/img323/2760/smallcylinderforcamrelaai2.jpg

Fred

 

[Jaynen]

Thank you very much for the reply! Still a lil angry that the program doesnt support this kind of thing, but this will work. I shouldnt have to worry about the fixed planar alignment because I have the side wheel to control that. Now does anyone know how to make a peice of roller coaster track that is a corkscrew?