How to Manually Create Joints in Inspire Motion

Gnokrojam
Gnokrojam New Altair Community Member
edited October 2020 in Community Q&A

I think there is a way to create joints manually in Inspire Motion. I cannot find it though.

Does anybody out there know how to create joints manually?

Thank you.

Answers

  • asajd_20372
    asajd_20372 New Altair Community Member
    edited January 2020

    Using the attached CAD file, you should be able to follow the steps shown in the attached video.

    If that is not what you wanted, please attach your CAD file so we can see.

     

    Regards,

    asajd

    Unable to find an attachment - read this blog

  • Gnokrojam
    Gnokrojam New Altair Community Member
    edited January 2020

    Thank you for all the information.

    I exported the geometry you provided as a STEP file and read it into Inspire.

    I cannot select the surfaces in the holes. Or any surfaces for that matter.

    It's just point and click left mouse button, right?

    I've been doing other things with Inspire. If I use Autofind I can click on discovered joints and change their settings and activate them. 

    I'm stumped. I don't know what setting would keep me from selecting surfaces.

     

    I appreciate your assistance.

    Phil Brown

  • Gnokrojam
    Gnokrojam New Altair Community Member
    edited January 2020

    I also just now tried reading the geometry straight from the TwoLinks.x_b file. It didn't change anything.

  • asajd_20372
    asajd_20372 New Altair Community Member
    edited January 2020

    Not sure which release you are using on your end. You can see from my videos that I have been using Inspire 2019.3.

     

    From File - Preferences I do have the default setting of 'Autofind' turned On (it is under the 'Inspire -> Geometry' category).

     

    Regarding 'Feature based' vs. 'Manual' joints...

    • The joints in Inspire are not surface based. Rather, it is looking for pairs of shared features, such as 'Aligned Holes' or 'Cylindrical Pairs' ... i.e. the options you can find in the Joints guide bar.
    • Sometimes the default settings may not detect the joint that you may be expecting to find.
      • On occasion this can be due to bad or flawed CAD geometry. In other cases you just need to override the defaults and make a manual setting.  
      • The attached video shows an example of this. In this use case there is a 3.5 mm gap between two cylindrical features, so the automatic detection is not finding the shared feature. By using the 'search distance' option we can specify a value of 5 mm use 'Find' and with that it detects the expected cylindrical feature for the joint.

    Refer to attached video and model (JointGap_Before.stmod) that you can use to reproduce what was shown in the video.
     

    Unable to find an attachment - read this blog

  • Gnokrojam
    Gnokrojam New Altair Community Member
    edited January 2020

    I have been using Inspire 2019.2. I checked and found that 2019.3.1 is available to me. I installed it and now I can select the features as your video shows.

    I can also now select features in my own geometry.

    I still have problems, but I think they are related to the bad geometry as you mention. In one instance I found a bushing that was at an angle to the hole it was in. It was off so much that there was an interference between the parts.

    Anyway, you have got me going again. Thank you again for your invaluable assistance.

    Best Regards,

    Phil