balance beam simulation

Hi All

Is it possible to construct a simple balance beam and have each end acted upon by gravity?

I am currently doing a project in 2D which requires a counterweight. It would be a great help If I could prove the balance pre manufacture.

Im new to SW so if you coould keep it simple that would really help

I have managed to assemble the balance beam :wink:

Thanks Dave

Dave it is possible to run a motion study and turn on gravity. What year/version of solidworks do you have?

Hi shift your becoming my personal tutor

Im using 07

thanks

can you put up a screen shot of what you are working with. If it was truely a balance beam it probably wouldnt do much. What does the rest of the assembly look like?

The arm looks a bit like this. with an aluminium assembly mounted in the two rectangular cutous and the counter weight on the left side of the pivot

cheers Dave

turnover arm 2010 Model (1.pdf

im not at work today so i dont have SW in front of me but go to this post and i put some screen shots of the motion study.

http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?t=31599&highlight=motion+study&page=2

post #13 is where the screen shots are. You can see im pointing to a cam mate. You will notice a few icons over is a green apple. This is how you turn on/off gravity. Tomorrow at work ill try to do a simple example.

alright here is a quick vid and a few screen shots. This was a really basic example. First your "base" needs to be grounded and your assembly needs to be properly constrained for the motion you want. If you can move it in your Assembled model you need to handle that first.

ill have to explain the images a bit later for you.

Alright so the first part is obviously a vid. The first image shows the location of my CG. I made sure it was just barely off to one side so i would get some motion but not a ton. The second image shows you the bottom of the screen next to your model tab is how you start a motion study. On my screen there is a drop down box that says Motion Analysis. When you first start you will need to change this to Motion Analysis or basic motion in order for the gravity to work.

In the 3rd image I had just clicked on the Green apple icon to apply gravity and I selected my TOP plane as the reference. Pay attention to the plane and the arrow direction for this. The last step is to click calculate.

Sorry im in a bit of a rush so let me know if you have any questions.

Matt

Thanks for going to so much trouble. I now have the bones of the assembly in SW. I will study your reply and get back to you

Cheers Dave