Inventor Tetra Connector

[Stu Bloom]

Originally Posted by Curt Henderson

Your not alone!!

I have about 3-4 hours trying to model the Clover coupler so I am able to assemble the center goal.

I can model the connector but when trying to assembly the tetra the constraints bomb.

I have tried checking the angle of the three faces and all seems OK (the same). I am not sure if it is an Inventor fold command variance or errors in my sketch that produces angle error when the connector gets folded to the 35.3d angle.

I can't say that I have a solution (yet) but I am sure the 35.3 degree angle is rounded off. I'll be continuing to work on it ... until I have a solution or someone beats me to it ...

[Curt Henderson]

The Fold command is in the sheet metal environment.

I start the part as a sheetmetal part, created the clover leaf pattern and then created a bend lind as mentioned on the print.

When you use the Fold command you have options as to where the bend line will be oriented. I had the best success with having it at the start of the bend.

Good Luck

[petek]

I've attached our TH Connector Inventor part. I had to move the End of Part marker in the browser to get the file size below 100K. When you open the file, drag the End of Part marker to the bottom of the browser and save the file.

It took a little thought to lay out, but if you do it the way Inventor wants you to, it isn't all that hard - just a little time consuming. The way I made it I was able to fully constrain the tetrahedrons to the connector using Insert constraints for all but the very last mate, which I used a Mate of the hole centers for.

To make the connector "clover" I followed this procedure:

Use the Sheetmetal template and set the thickness to .098 (in Parameters).
Start by drawing the 2.55 and 1.25 layout circle constructions. I recommend using the Fix constraint to nail down the origin of these circles at the origin of the sketch axes.
Then draw construction lines at 30, 90 and 150 degrees, intersecting the origin.
Draw the top "petal" 1.95 circle at the intersection of the 2.55 circle and the vertical axis.
Next, draw a 0.093 circle at the intersection of the 30 degree line and the 1.25 circle. Repeat on the other side at the 150 degree line.
Draw a line tangent to the 1.95 petal and the 0.093 circle.
Repeat these steps for the other three petals.
Trim the "extra" from the 1.95 and 0.093 circles.
You should now have the outline of the part.
Draw the 0.375 hole circles.
Exit the sketch and save your work.
Use the Face feature to "extrude" the sheetmetal thickness. If this fails, go back in the sketch and make sure you can close the loop.
Create a new sketch on the face of the part and draw the fold line as shown in the PDF.
Exit the sketch and use the Fold feature tool to make your bend.
The 35.3 degree dimension on the PDF is rounded from the delta/2 (=arccos(1/3)/2) If you want your connector to mate to the tetrahedron ends, use 35.26438968 (or enter the formula in Parameters, like I did) - otherwise you'll get constraint errors.

By the way, check out Math Forum's Tetrahedron info for the formulas for this beast.

[team222badbrad]

Thanks!!!!

The file works great.

I have included a picture of the tetra using your piece.

[Lucid]

It seems that you are all bending it on one line. In reality the clovers have a smooth curve. Have you thought about drawing the curve as a surface inb AutoCAD and importing it? This might be more than you want though.

Lucid

[team222badbrad]

Originally Posted by Lucid

It seems that you are all bending it on one line. In reality the clovers have a smooth curve. Have you thought about drawing the curve as a surface inb AutoCAD and importing it? This might be more than you want though.

Lucid

It does not matter how they look, just as long as they allow Inventor to make constraints that do not crash!

[SteveC116]

I'm not sure what you're making these models for, perhaps the animation? Anyways, if they are supposed to look like the tetras that will be on the field, there will be end caps on the pipe that the connectors connect to (team222badbrad - you just connected the connector directly to a pipe)

Also, I met with Dave Lavery just the other day to discuss what materials and coloring will be on the field, and he told me the pipes for the tetras will be aluminum with a matte finish, while the end pieces will be a similar shade metal, but more glossy.

[team222badbrad]

Yes I know they need end caps, but I do not have dimensions for those...

If anyone has those would you please share?

I am personally not modeling them for anything in particular. I may eventually build a whole field just for something to do.

I just build the model shown in this thread to see if the tetra pieces part on here, actually allowed me to make constraints in Inventor.

[Jeff Waegelin]

Could anyone post a full model of a tetra? I'm not the best with inventor, but I want one that I can look at and spin around and such with.

[AstroMD]

Originally Posted by Jeff Waegelin

Could anyone post a full model of a tetra? I'm not the best with inventor, but I want one that I can look at and spin around and such with.

If you do post a file can you also post a .STP (STEP) file so that I can import it into SolidWorks.

[FarooK]

thanks a million guys, we have completed the side goals, but are still in a dead end when it comes to the centre goal, as we do not have any drawings of the centre couplet or the base couplet.

I will put up a drawing of the goal if we get how to make it, hopefully by tomorrow
In the meantime, any help on how to make them will be greatly appreciated

[ajlapp]

please do post the completed tetra.........better to share our resources than try to build one from scratch.

[Pat McCarthy]

I tried opening that one that was posted, but when it opened, I could not see the part. Mousing over the model parameters, I could see the outline, but how do i make it visable?

I'm using Inventor 8 Pro

[team222badbrad]

You have to open the file.

Once it is open drag the little red circle with a white X named END OF PART to the last place on the list.

This is located in the browser bar. If you do not see the red circle click view, then toolbars and then click on browser bar.

I will try to post the tetra without the end caps...

[petek]

Originally Posted by Jeff Waegelin

Could anyone post a full model of a tetra? I'm not the best with inventor, but I want one that I can look at and spin around and such with.

We'll post it on our website as soon as we have it (the site) set up for it - probably in a couple of days. The assembly is way to large a file to post as an attachment - the connector alone just made it under the 100K limit.