1D: Design Methodology - Simple Swerve Drivebase

Assembly

Now that the part studio is finished, you can create the drivetrain assembly.

Just like with the practice exercises in the previous stage, after inserting and grouping all of the parts, you should fasten the origin cube to the origin of the assembly. This aligns the part studio origin and assembly origin.

Instructions

Start by creating a new assembly tab called Drivetrain Assembly in the Drivetrain folder. Follow the instructions in the slides to complete the assembly.

1. Add the part studio parts to the assembly. Like before, group mate the rigid components with the Origin Cube and mate the Origin Cube to the assembly origin.

2. Insert the MK4i module from the MKCad app into the assembly and mate it into place.

3. Use the Circular Pattern assembly tool to finish assembling the modules.

4. Insert, fasten, and replicate the 3/16" rivet from MKCad onto the bellypan holes. For the replicate feature, you can use "Select edges on face" rather than "Select individual edges" since we want all of the holes to have a rivet.

5. To finish the assembly, organize your components into folders and name your replicates.

Replicate Tool

The Replicate tool is a very powerful tool for duplicating parts in assemblies. Replicate works by creating a copy of the selected parts, and duplicates the selected mate onto the selected geometry. Note that the selected geometry must exactly match the origin mate geometry, eg: the hole diameter must be the same for replicate to copy a rivet.

In your assembly, you use the select the face for replicate to apply to. What this does is identify all geometry that matches the original mate and then copy the selected components and mate to those matching locations on the selected face. If you want to replicate onto only specific holes, you can change the drop-down menu to "Match Individual Edges".

Match Individual Edges for Replicate