Hi there,

So, I have this machine construction element here. For the curious: It's a simplified model of a drag chain.

My problem is kinda complicated. Hope I can tell in understandable English.

So... The white elements/sections are loose and can be rotated around the orange "anchor points" of their respective section besides to them. The blue sections can't be moved or rotated because they are fixed. They are the "ends" of the chain.

Now what I want to do is that the white elements are rotated in a way all the anchor points meet perfectly without any gap. Every anchor point is 20 mm off of each other. Because of the blue sections which are shifted from each other I can't calculate the correct angle the white sections have to be rotated.

Hi,

i tried the following:

From the center of each (orange) axis i drew circles with a radius of 20 and as you can see in my image i rotated the links until they snapped at the intersection of the second (middle) and third (top) circle.

Regards
Stefan

Yes!

Same as the other guys :)



(Can't find a way to keep to middel chain elemets vertical :S)

Maybe you can make something with the free easy Algodoo ? ;) 2D
http://www.algodoo.com/

And the little less friendly but powerful solvespace (2D/3D)
http://solvespace.com/index.pl

This is it! Intersection circles. Of course, of course. :-D

Love this forum. Thank you, guys!!

@PaQ: In this setup (edit: with the REAL drag chain) it's impossible to keep the middle section vertical.

Well it should look something like this ... but I can't find a way to snap the red segment on both circle :S

Hi PaQ,

i was thinking about the same and came up with doing a radial array of 360 segments on each circle to be able to trim then with more iterations following, but i'm still not there... :-)

Regards
Stefan

Hello Pilou,

do you remember the free little program you posted once, it was a 2D animation program where you could draw/connect lines and animate them, like with Inverse Kinematics etc. ? I downloaded it once from your link and it was fun to play with, because it simulated the animation behavior exactly like real mechanical objects.

Regards
Stefan

That would be Algodoo, wouldn't it. He mentioned that already...

http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=8077.5

No, it wasn't Algodoo. Pilou showed also animation samples he has done with it.

Regards
Stefan

Yes I suppose that was Algodoo like Marco remarks! ;) (the more fun i have never seen)

Ah sorry cross posts!

So maybe SolveSpace
http://solvespace.com/index.pl is more the resolution itself!

https://www.geogebra.org/?ggbLang=en is entierelly for any geometric resolve

else maybe http://neobarok.com/
for this one i don't success to make the "animation" of these gears - we can because functions are well inside but...
Video is too speed! If you success I will be happy to know the trick! :)


I have made this one but can't move an individual object without break the link!

or
http://www.vpaint.org/

Hi Pilou,

unfortunately none of the programs you list. It was another program. Sorry i really can't remember the name.

You showed with this program connected straight lines and animated them, like real mechanical object behaviour.
The connected lines had little symbols between them for various animation purposes.

I already searched your forum posts today, but i could not find it.

Regards
Stefan

I will search in my repository! ;)
Curious is "little program"!
Do you remember if it was "on line" or not ?

Neobarok has this sort of thing but it's not in the" download" version!

this one ?
http://blog.rectorsquid.com/linkage-mechanism-designer-and-simulator/

This other one ?
http://animata.kibu.hu/

This ?

Yes, Pilou it is the Linkage program! Thanks a lot for your help, much appreciated!

http://blog.rectorsquid.com/linkage-mechanism-designer-and-simulator/

Best regards
Stefan