Step 3.1: New Plane, Mechanism, Part, Motion-Dimension

Add a new Plane...[new]
...add a new Mechanism to the new Plane...[Tutorial 1]

...add a new Part to the new Mechanism...[Tutorial 1]

...edit the Length of the Part...and the Base-Part to add a Line...[Tutorial 1]

...add a Pin-Joint between the two Parts and then add a Motion-Dimension FB ...[Tutorial 1]

To add a new Plane to the Model-Editor, you must select a different Plane. Then, the new Plane is offset from [parallel to] the Plane that you select.

The Add Plane dialog-box opens.

For information only:

The dialog-box shows:

When you click the 'Right' Plane, it will show in the Element box of the Plane dialog-box and the Selection-Window.

OR...

If you select more than one Plane, then all of the Planes show in the Selection-Window.

In the Selection-Window, click the Plane you want to select

Make sure the correct Plane is in the Element box of the Add Plane dialog

You can preview the new Plane in the Model graphic-area

You may need to Zoom-out- see View toolbar below graphic-area

- or -

When you use your keyboard, do not forget to press the ENTER key on your keyboard after you enter a new value.

STEP 5:

Click in the Add Plane dialog-box

When the correct Plane is in the Command-Manager.

STEP 3:

Click in the Command-Manager

You 'jump' to the new Mechanism-Editor and tab.

In the Graphic-Area:

Mechanism1 name-tab shows next to Mechanism name-tab

In the Assembly-Tree

Mechanism1 element as a child to Plane4, which is the Plane we selected to add the new Mechanism.

To rename any Mechanism:

The Add Part command becomes active. The Add Part mouse-pointer is active.

When you release you mouse-button, the new Part shows in the graphic-area.

In the graphic-area, the Part has an:

•	Oval Part-Outline

•	CAD-Line along the centre of the Part

•	Origin, X-axis and Y-axis at the start-Point of the CAD-Line,

The Point at each end of the CAD-Line is its

To edit the length of a Part, you must edit the Part in the Part-Editor

To edit the Part, it is frequently easiest to:

The Part-Editor Opens.

Note:

The X-axis and Y-axis are at the same angle in the graphic-area as they are in the Mechanism-Editor.

Optionally, Click View menu (or View toolbar) > View Align if you want to make the X-axis horizontal.

To edit a dimension, or, the length of the Part:

Press the Enter key to confirm the new value before you close the Dimension dialog-box.

- or -

Optionally: Right-click the Dimension Value and select 'Round'

The Dimension changes to the nearest value that is exactly divisible by the Spin-Increment.

In this example, the new dimension will become '130'.

There are many ways to close the Part-Editor. For example:

See Tutorial 1.1 to 1.4

Do this before STEP 1

Edit the Base-Part, Add a Line, Dimensions and Constraints, Close the Part-Editor.

Add a Pin-Joint, or a Slide-Joint between the sketch-element in the Base-Part and the new Part.

The Command-Manager needs you to select three elements from the graphic-area.

In this model, we select Pin-Joint as the first element - it is the only Joint in the model.

You must click the elements in the order of the selection-boxes. Do not click in the selection-box.

a.	Pin-Joint. See Step 1.4

b.	Line in the Base-Part. See Step 1.3.

c.	CAD-Line along the center of the Added-Part. See Step 1.2

Important Notes:

Line12 in the Base-Part is a Solved Line [ Base-Part is always a kinematically-defined Part ].

CAD-Line17 in the Added-Part, is not a solved Part.

Line12 and CAD-Line17  radiate from Pin-Joint

STEP 3:

Click in the Command-Manager

or even better...

The Motion-Dimension FB in the Graphic-Area.

Each Motion-Dimension has two symbols in the graphic-area:

Motion-Dimension: this is the dimension with arrowheads, between the Lines in the Base-Part and the Added-Part.
CTRL + Drag the arrow-head or dimension-line to move the Motion-Dimension towards or away from the Pin-Joint.

Motion-Dimension FB icon:
You can drag the Motion-Dimension FB icon anywhere.

Notes:

The Part-Outline is now Green to indicate it is now a kinematically-defined Part.

The design of the Motion-Dimension FB icon helps you see that it is the 'Angle' of the Part.