Pneumatic cylinders Solidworks lessons
 

Hey CD,
I am trying to figure out how to calculate where I need to Place a pneumatic cylinder, to get the proper orientation I would be looking for. If I know the two dimensions of my cylinder, how do I figure out on Solidworks where it needs to be. Lets say it was a part of my intake from recycle rush, how do I figure out where the piston needs to be in order for my intake to grab the tote.

Thanks

Paulius Pace
Team 3161 Captain

Re: Pneumatic cylinders Solidworks lessons
 

This is how I like to do it; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fQK6IWulSI

Re: Pneumatic cylinders Solidworks lessons
 

Thanks for the video. And yes, I am a old engineer.

Re: Pneumatic cylinders Solidworks lessons
 

Doing it with sketches as above is the fastest way IMO.
We like to download models of our cylinders from Bimba, as they come with all the features, including limits on the extension and retraction. This makes it very easy to tweak dimensions in the CAD to get it exactly where you want it.

Re: Pneumatic cylinders Solidworks lessons
 

That sounds a lot like iterating 2d geometry with 3D parts ;)

Re: Pneumatic cylinders Solidworks lessons
 

Adam, your video talked about what other ways to do something like this. The only thing I normally do different is I make things into Blocks, so the dimensions aren't in the way, and the relations don't mess anything up. It also makes it a lot cleaner and can make repetitive things quicker to draw.

Also I will sometimes start this sketch in an assembly, and then make the assembly using the sketch. A lot of the Part are 'In-Context" parts and everything will update when you change/modify your sketch. This is usually too difficult for a Student to do though, so I would only do this for school, or work (assuming co-workers know how to use in-context assemblies, so sometimes I'll break the references to old parts).

Re: Pneumatic cylinders Solidworks lessons
 

I need to give blocks an honest shot again, I used to over use them and they'd occasionally cause sketches to blow up. I'm not hearing that complaint from people recently though.

The second method I do a lot for personal and smaller projects, but I have trouble integrating on the team as so many different people of varied skillets work on the model and it tends to confuse them.

Re: Pneumatic cylinders Solidworks lessons
 

That's why I break the references when I'm done. It kind of ruins the whole "in-context" part but it makes Designing a lot quicker.