Assembly: How to offset axial constraints?

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sjgallagher2
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri Mar 03, 2017 2:51 am

Assembly: How to offset axial constraints?

Post by sjgallagher2 »

Hello all.
I'm trying to offset two cylinders at a fixed radius from one-another, without an enclosing surface.

For example, if you had shafts that were supposed to be 8 inches apart, from center to center, in an assembly. Or if you wanted to set the distance between gear centers and have it be variable so if you changed a gear you could alter the assembly by simply changing the distance between gear axes.

Currently, I am making an enclosure with two circular cutouts at the right distance apart, but as the number of aligned shafts increases and as I make more changes, it's getting quite frustrating.

Is there a better way to offset shaft axes in FreeCAD?

OS: Linux Mint 18 Sarah
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.16.6707 (Git)
Build type: None
Branch: releases/FreeCAD-0-16
Hash: 5465bc47c95db45e0be85dc0e2872419efadce0f
Python version: 2.7.12
Qt version: 4.8.7
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 6.8.0.oce-0.17

Thanks,
Sam
chrisb
Veteran
Posts: 53939
Joined: Tue Mar 17, 2015 9:14 am

Re: Assembly: How to offset axial constraints?

Post by chrisb »

You can use expressions or - if you have lots of them - a spreadsheet to control the positions.
And here is my daily reminder: Be aware that the Placement dialog cannot handle expressions, use them in the data tab instead.
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