Animating Constraints

If you decide to make one constraint vary, then the constrained sketched elements react. In other words, after assigning a set of values to the angular constraint the whole system is affected.

Before you begin: Sketch a piston and define one angle constraint.
Related Topics
What are Constraints?
More about Animating Constraints

  1. Select the angle constraint as shown:



  2. Click Animate Constraints . The Animate Constraint dialog box appears. The First value and Last value fields let you define the maximum and minimum values for the constraint. The Number of steps field defines the number of values you wish to assign to the constraint between the first and last values.

  3. Type 15 as Number of steps

  4. Type 115deg for the First value

  5. Type 260deg for the Last value.

  6. Select Hide constraints for hiding constraints. This can be useful when there are many elements in the sketch.

  7. Select Loop

  8. Select Run Animation to see how the sketch is affected by the different values assigned to the constraint. The command induces a clockwise rotation while moving the rectangle up and down. These three pictures below give examples of this behavior.



  9. Clear Hide constraints option to display the constraints again. Once the maximum value is reached, that is 260 degrees, the sketch looks like this: