Assistance With Tread

[Brant Bowen]

We are working on modeling prototypes for this years robot and we were wondering if any teams that have used tread before know how to draw it and make it function. I know that i can draw an outline of it pretty easily, extrude it, and cut out the part that is the inside, but that won't move around the track. Does anybody know how to make a tread that will move around a track?

[Tarzan]

you can use motion constraints to make a part move with respect to another. it's sort of complex if you haven't done it before so i suggest doing a couple of tutorials on the subject. there is one in the program or you can try www.sdotson.com both have decent tutorials that should help a bit

[Brant Bowen]

I actually just learned how to do motion constraints, but something seems to me that if i make a tread one solid piece it won't spin correctly. Wouldn't a tread have to be several different pieces inorder to perform a motion constraint on it correctly?

[matt111]

wow screws are really hard. u probably know this but u can use the cheap inventor "threads" to texture if the constaints wont work. or u could do a presentation and tweak the screws to move up and spin at the same time.

[Frank(Aflak)]

Originally Posted by matt111

wow screws are really hard. u probably know this but u can use the cheap inventor "threads" to texture if the constaints wont work. or u could do a presentation and tweak the screws to move up and spin at the same time.

he means treads. As in tank treads.

And to answer your question, I don't think that Invento can even DO treads. All the objects you can add motion constraints to move or rotate, but do not deform. A tread must be constantly changing its shape to move around, unlike a wheel, gear, sprokect, rotating arm, pneumatic cylinder, etc. that only have to MOVE.

So I would say model it and put it on, and then move the wheels that drive the tread and tell your team to pretend that the tread is moving also.

[matt111]

omg lol sry i read this at like 3 am. all i can say is that to make treads u will need circle and rectangle patterns. that is as much as i could do. try importing it into 3dsmax and messing with it

[GregT]

I don't think inventor can do it.

It would be possible to do in solidworks, but would require rediculously complecated equations.

What you're asking inventor to do is change the profile of the tread with respect to the position of a wheel. Unless inventor supports equations or some other way of dynamically changing sketches I'm afraid your out of luck.

You might want to pause and ask yourself why you want to do this. Besides "it will look cool" I can't think of any. Remember that inventor is a CAD program and not ment to handle complex anamation tasks. I agree that it would look cool but your time is probably best spent elsewhere.

Greg

[Tarzan]

it actually is possible to do treads if you do it in many different pieces (think a chain). dont know if you want to spend the time to do all of the constraints but it is possible to do. a LOT of work but would look really cool.

hope it helps