Automatically Create Parts and Joints

As you build your SolidWorks assembly model, COSMOSMotion can automatically create the parts in your mechanism.

To automatically create parts and joints:

1. By default, you are prompted to automatically add new parts the first time you open the assembly in the Motion environment. The first time you do a rebuild (or add a SolidWorks assembly constraint which calls a rebuild), insert a new component to your SolidWorks assembly model.

The following dialog box appears:

 

2. Select Yes.
   
   The new parts are added to the motion model based on whether they are fixed or floating parts in the SolidWorks assembly.

3. To control the automatic mapping options, do the following:

1. Right-click the Motion Model node and then select System Defaults or, from the Motions menu, select Options.

2. Select the World tab.

3. Select one of the following Parts options:

• Exclude new parts from Moving and Ground parts – Automatic mapping is turned off when you enter the COSMOSMotion environment. You have to manually designate which parts are moving and which are ground parts.

• Map new parts to Moving and Ground parts – Every new part added to the assembly is automatically mapped to a COSMOSMotion part. The choice of moving or ground part is determined by the setting of the part’s fixed/float attribute in SolidWorks.

• Ask before mapping parts  - The dialog box shown above appears each time the first constraint is added to a new part.

When parts are designated as moving and ground, assembly mates are reviewed and, where supported, mapped to COSMOSMotion constraints. Any changes to mapped constraints are automatically reflected in COSMOSMotion.

If you delete a mapped joint, it is no longer automatically generated unless one of the parts to which it connects is removed from the mechanism and then added in again. See Mapped SolidWorks Mates for more information.

Back to top