Constraint Set - Autodesk Inventor Assembly Tutorial | Autodesk Inventor 2021 IN DEPTH

[Calm Hip-Hop Music] Hey everybody it's Alex with Engineering Applied  in this video I’ll be giving you an overview   of the constraint set function found within an  Autodesk Inventor assembly file if you want more   easy to understand and practical content like this  made by an experienced engineer like myself make   sure you like this video subscribe to the channel  and turn on notifications so you don't miss out   on any helpful content like this in the future if  you're looking for a specific function check the   description for timestamps and if you don't find  what you're looking for in this video make sure   you check out the other videos in my Autodesk  Inventor series playlist because I know you'll   find exactly what you need there let's get started  okay everybody so here we are in our assembly file   and I went ahead and pulled up two different types  of connectors so the one on the right is a panel   mount connector and the one on the left is the  corresponding receptacle that mates with this   connector on the right and so what we're going to  do here is we're going to use the constraint set   function alongside with a user coordinate system  to create an effective and efficient mate without   having to line up a bunch of different entities  within these parts to one another so normally   what we would do is we'd go up to constrain under  the assemble tab in the relationship section and   we would apply a normal mate so we could maybe mate  this face here to this inner edge here and so on   and so forth but instead of doing that what we  can do is we can apply a user coordinate system   which will allow these parts to line up the same  way every single time in a single step rather   than having to make several different mates to  fully define the constraints between these two   models so let's go ahead and jump out of this  command window and what we'll do is we'll open   up each one of these two models individually and  apply those user coordinate systems individually   as we move along and then we'll come back into  this assembly and apply this final constraint   all right I’ve opened up the receptacle file and  what we're going to do is we're going to um apply   this user coordinate system along this back wall  here because this is where it mates up with this   inner edge on this panel mount connector okay so  we're going to essentially center this coordinate   system up with the center point of a line going  down this face and a center point going across   this way so what we're going to do first is  we're going to create a sketch on this back face   here and we're going to just right click  and go to new sketch onto that face   and I’m going to project some geometry so I want  to use this line this line and that line should   do and I’ll just go into my marking menu and hit  ok and then now let's go ahead and draw some extra   lines here so we can drop a center point so we'll  let that snap to the midpoint let's look at the   front of this face again okay I’m going to bring  it down to this face make sure it's perpendicular   left click and then we're going to do the same  on this side so we're going to pick up that   center point that midpoint and then we're going  to bring it all the way over and drop it there   now we're just going to drop a point right in  the middle there and the reason why I’m doing   this is because I’m creating a central reference  point for this coordinate axis or this coordinate   system to attach itself to so now that we've  done that I’m going to finish the sketch here   and I’m going to go up to work features and  I’m going to select UCS okay and I’m just   going to hover over that center point that I  dropped and you'll see it snaps to that I’m   going to left-click and um it says to specify the  x-axis direction I’m actually not going to click   on anything else at this point in time you can click  other entities to reorient this coordinate system   but what I’m going to do is I’m going to right  click and then go to finish okay and you'll see   it drops it into place and so one thing I want you  to note is the direction of the z axis it's facing   outwards or I guess to the right or inwards  towards this mating connection and so what   we're going to do is we're going to essentially do  the same thing but in reverse on the panel mount   connector so now that we have this in place  let's jump over to our panel mount connector   and remember since that front face of this  receptacle here this face here is mating with   this edge what I want to do is go ahead and  create this next sketch on this face okay so   I’m going to right click and go to new sketch  and I’m going to do the same exact thing that   I did with the other one so I’m going to go ahead  and project some geometry okay we'll go up to line   and let's find that midpoint snap it into  place we'll do the same thing on this side   okay let that snap into place and let's  drop a point on that intersection point   all right so now we go to ok and finish sketch  let's do the same thing so we'll go to up to   work features and drop a UCS on that point  let it snap now notice the z axis is facing   the opposite direction so what happens when we  use this constraint set function is it aligns   both coordinate systems with one another which  moves the parts around accordingly to match   those coordinate systems so in this particular  case we actually want the z-axis to be going   in the opposite direction so that when these  two parts align their coordinate systems   the mating connection will be in its proper  orientation so let's go ahead and do that   so what I can do is I can finish this command  and then go back into the model browser here on   the left side and I can right click on UCS 1  which is this coordinate system I just made   and I can go to redefine feature and when I do  that I can hover over this y-axis and you'll see   I get this little symbol that pops up it's like a  rotational symbol around an axis I can left-click   and I can actually rotate this coordinate  system about that y-axis which is exactly   what I want to do and I want to rotate this by  180 degrees so I’m going to type in 180 and I’m   going to hit enter and when I do that you'll see  the z-axis is going towards the back and when   these two parts align with one another our mate  should be created in the correct orientation so   let's go ahead and just right click to finish that  okay so now that we've finished that let's go into   our assembly so you'll see I have my coordinate  systems populated in my assembly and what I can   do now is I can go up to the relationship section  click on constrain go to the constraint set tab   and before we continue on I want to go ahead  and cover the major sections found here in   this place constraint window under the constraint  set tab and once I go ahead and cover those I’ll   execute the command so we can see its behavior  and then we'll discuss briefly how we can further   augment the location of these user coordinate  systems our first section is the type section   and conventionally this is where we have  multiple types of constraints housed however   under constraint set we only have the one type  which is UCS to UCS or user coordinate system   to user coordinate system okay so moving to the  right we have our selections section and this is   where we can toggle our selection filters to pick  up the various entities we want to mate together   so by default the first one is pre-highlighted  and I know it's highlighted because it's got a   blue fill inside of its little tile and I can  switch back and forth between these at will and   you'll see when I click on the number 2 I get  the blue fill inside of the box that means that   second selection filter is currently active okay  moving on to the right we have our pick part first   option so let's go back to the first selection  filter conventionally what will happen is when   I hover over the coordinate system it'll just go  straight to that coordinate system okay it'll  highlight that in green and the same thing with  this one over here but when I check this box for   pick part first what happens is I have to select  the part body first or the component first okay   so um let's say for example that these two parts  were housed in an assembly where I can't quite   get to this coordinate system in the back because  it's hidden behind something well what I can do   is I can pick an exposed part of that component  okay so I’ll just select that connector itself   and then now when I click a second time it won't  highlight anything that's associated with anything   other than this component that I originally  selected so even though I’m hovering over this   coordinate system it's not selecting it for me  because it's not associated with this component I   pre-selected on the first mouse click so now let's  go ahead and hover over this coordinate system and   we can left-click to select that and then you'll  see it snaps to the selection filter number two   automatically and we do the same thing so we're  going to select this part body first okay and then   now we're able to select that coordinate system so  even if I flip this around and hover over this one   it's not allowing me to select that because it's  not associated with this part body so let's go   ahead and select the second user coordinate  system and when I do that you'll see that   I get a part preview so moving down we have this  little pair of glasses here that says show preview   so we can either toggle our preview settings  on or off using this checkbox here on the left   so as you saw there we see a preview  of the mate before we actually hit ok   but let's go ahead and hit cancel and  try that again without the preview option   enabled so we'll go ahead and  select those two entities once again   okay and you see how this connector stays frozen  in space it doesn't preview that mate for us   but when I hit ok it still accomplishes that mate  moving down in our command window we have our name   section where we can apply a custom name to this  constraint and to access this extended menu all   you have to do is click these two arrows on the  bottom right hand corner of the original window   and it will extend the menu and let's go ahead  and type in a custom name so we'll just type in   UCS constraint okay and then let's pick up  our two entities that we want to constrain   and we'll hit ok and now when we go to our  relationships folder up underneath our constraint   set assembly we can see that we have our custom  named constraint there and we can always right   click on that we can delete it edit it and so on  and so forth now let's go ahead and inspect the   mate that we just created so as I rotate this part  around you'll see that this receptacle here on the   left is mated up perfectly with the panel mount  connector okay and we did that in a single step   after we created our UCS within each part file  this can be such a powerful tool especially   when you have an assembly that contains multiple  parts that need to be aligned with one another   but you don't want to have to go through and  manually create all of those constraints so   let's say for example we have another one of  these panel mount connectors okay so let's go   ahead and pull another one in we'll drop it  anywhere and let's go ahead and ground it so   it doesn't move because it's going to be fixed  in a panel and then let's pull in another one   of these receptacles here so we'll open this  file up drop it anywhere it doesn't matter   and so instead of mating everything up manually  like we would have to do normally let's go ahead   and finish this constraint in one step so we'll go  to constrain constraint set let's select this UCS   and this UCS and you can see it snaps it  all into place in one step we'll hit ok   and again when I click and drag on this receptacle  it's not moving anywhere it's frozen all degrees   of freedom in a single step now before I go ahead  and finish this video up I want to talk about   how we can further edit the location of these  coordinate systems that we've placed in either   one of these parts so we'll go ahead and edit the  location of the UCS within the receptacle file so   what I want to do first is I want to go over to  the model browser and I want to go to UCS 1 and   if you're unsure which UCS it is you could just  left click on it once it'll highlight it in blue   and then we can right click on that go to redefine  feature and we have a few different ways that we   can actually redefine this feature our first way  to redefine this feature is we can hover over this   little point in the middle and you see we get this  four-way arrow that pops up okay we can left-click   and we can just move the mouse around and  move this entity or we can type in a delta x   a delta y or a delta z value so let's say for  example we want to move it a quarter of an inch   in the x direction I can type in .25 and then  I can press tab to move over to the next entry   for the delta y let's say we don't want to  move it in the y direction so we'll type a zero   and then let's hit tab once more and then we'll  move it um let's say an eighth of an inch in the   z direction um actually let's move it back by an  eighth of an inch so we'll type in a negative sign   and then .125 okay and when I do that I can just  hit enter and now it moves that coordinate system   accordingly after selecting this little point  here on the origin another way we can redefine   this UCS entity is we can right click on it  go to redefine feature and we can actually   rotate about an axis by hovering over the stem  on each one of these axis arrows in this triad   and you see we get a little symbol it's a line  with an arrow revolving around it okay so once   we find an axis that we want to revolve around so  let's say the x-axis for example we can left-click   and then we can type in an angle value so  let's say we want to rotate this by 90 degrees   I can type in 90 and you'll see it flips around  by 90 degrees and then of course you can use a   negative sign in that field if you want to  and it'll flip it the other direction or you   can enter any value up to 360 degrees so once  you have your angle value set you can hit enter   and it'll redefine that feature for you now we can  also translate this UCS along an axis direction   by going to redefine feature in your model browser  and then all we have to do is hover over the   end on each one of these axis arrows and you'll  see we get a double headed arrow that pops up   this is to translate along that triad segment so  we can left click on the end of this arrow here in   the z direction and let's say we want to translate  this along the z direction by half an inch so all   we have to do is type in 0.5 and you'll see it  moves forward by 0.5 or let's say for example we   want to move it back by 0.5 inches all I have to  do is put a negative sign here and it'll move in   the opposite direction of that z-axis arrow okay  so once we have that set we can just hit enter and   it'll reposition that triad for us now I’m going  to go ahead and actually translate this forward   so that it's flush with the end of this part of  the receptacle so that when we go back into our   assembly we can update that model to show that  the connector is just interfacing with the panel   mount connector but not actually plugged in yet so  what we'll do is we'll go back to redefine feature   we're going to click on the end of this z-axis  and I’m going to type in 0.256 inches okay and   I’m going to press enter right click to  go to the marking menu and go to finish   and then now let's go back to our assembly  and we'll go to local update here at the top   and you see it updates the interface between  these two components because that UCS location   has changed this is really powerful for when you  want to make a bunch of changes in your assembly   that are related to two coordinate systems  that you've already mated together   but you can make all these changes in one  step by just editing the UCS location in   your individual component files that's all  for this segment of the Autodesk Inventor   Assembly Creation Module where I gave you  an overview of the constraint set function   I really hope that you found this tutorial to  be helpful and that you put what you've learned   into practice so you can continue developing your  skills as you work your way through these lessons   also before you watch the next video in the series  make sure you subscribe to my channel and turn on   notifications to stay up to date on future content  that will help you create the future you want for   yourself and of course don't hesitate to leave  a comment or reach out via my website contact   page and let me know if there's anything else  you'd like to learn about or see on this channel   I really appreciate you choosing to stop by  and learn with me and I’ll see you again soon [Calm Hip-Hop Music]

Channel: Engineering Applied

Views: 663

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Id: tft6ZQCO29E

Length: 15min 43sec (943 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 18 2020