Joints Panel

The Joints panel allows you to edit the connectivity, properties, and orientation rules of joints.

joints_panel

Joints panel

Compliant Joints

MotionView joints can be toggled between compliant and non-compliant.

Non-compliant joints act as pure constraints and allow relative motion only between the degrees of freedom of that particular joint type.

The Joints panel contains the following tabs for non-compliant joints:

Connectivity

Initial Conditions

Friction Properties

Compliant joints are identical to bushings and allow relative motion in all six degrees freedom. The relative motion will be dependent on the stiffness and damping of the compliant joint. In order for a joint to be compliant, the Allow compliance option must be enabled at the time of joint creation.

For compliant joints, the following additional tabs are displayed:

Symmetric properties	allows you to turn symmetry on or off. When symmetry is turned off, both sides can be edited separately. When you turn on symmetry, you are prompted to select a parent side.
User-defined	define non-linear stiffness and damping properties from a user-defined dll. After you select User-defined properties, select the User-Defined tab. You can then select a force from the drop-down menu and also enter the user-defined function.

You can create the following types of joints:

Ball	Planar
Revolute	Constant Velocity
Translational	Atpoint
Universal	Orientation
Inline	Parallel Axes
Fixed	Perpendicular Axes
Inplane	Screw
Cylindrical

Note	The connectivity and orientation information of a joint and bushing are identical. A joint places a combination of rigid constraints between two bodies, and a bushing places compliant constraints between bodies.

Primitive Constraints

Joint Primitive Type	Removes Number of Translational DOF	Removes Number of Rotational DOF	Removes Total Number DOF
Atpoint	3	0	3
Inline	2	0	2
Inplane	1	0	1
Orientation	0	3	3
Parallel Axes	0	2	2
Perpendicular	0	1	1

Joint Constraints

Joint Type	Removes Translational DOF	Removes Rotational DOF	Removes Total Number DOF
Ball Joint	3	0	3
Constant Velocity	3	1	4
Cylindrical	2	2	4
Fixed	3	3	6
Planar	1	2	3
Point to Curve	2	0	2
Revolute	3	2	5
Translational	2	3	5
Universal	3	1	4

1.	From the Project Browser, select the system to which the joint is to be added.

2.	Right-click on a system folder in the Project Browser and select Add > Constraint > Joint from the context menu.

-	Right-click on a joint folder in the Project Browser and select Add Joint from the context menu.

-	Right-click the Joint button on the Constraint toolbar.

The Add Joint or JointPair dialog is displayed.

3.	The parent system name is displayed in the System field.

4.	Enter a label in the Label: field if you want to use a different label than the default.

5.	Enter a variable name in the Variable: field if you want to use a different variable name than the default.

6.	Under Type:, select Single or Pair.

7.	Select a joint type from the drop-down menu.

8.	Activate the Allow compliance check box to make the joint compliant. Leave the check box empty to make the joint non-compliant.

9.	Enter any notes in the text box.

10.	Click Apply.

11.

Click OK.

1.	From the Project Browser, select a system.

The System/Assembly panel is automatically displayed.

2.	Select the Options tab.

3.	From the Compliant drop-down menu, select Yes for the system or any of its parent systems.