Flexible Components
Tips and Tricks • Tianshuo Sun • 14 February 2020
In SOLIDWORKS 2020, you can define a part component as flexible to drive the geometry of flexible components by the assembly geometry.
How to Add a Flexible Component
Here’s an example of adding a flexible component:
Open system_dir:\Users\Public\Documents\SOLIDWORKS\SOLIDWORKS 2020\samples\whatsnew\assemblies\flexible_components\Destination_Assembly.SLDASM.
Click Insert Components (Assembly toolbar) and select system_dir:\Users\Public\Documents\SOLIDWORKS\SOLIDWORKS 2020\samples\whatsnew\assemblies\flexible_components\Spring.SLDPRT.
Create a coincident mate between Collar<1> and the red face of Spring<1>.
Click View > Hide/Show > Axes .
Create a concentric mate between the central axis of Spring<1> and the cylindrical shaft of Shaft<1>.
In the Feature Manager design tree, right-click Spring<1> and click Make Part Flexible in the context menu. In the graphics area, a preview of the unattached reference entity appears.
To reattach the reference entity, click a planar face on Shaft<1>.
Click OK.
In the graphics area, you now can move Collar<1> up and down, and see the spring become longer and shorter.
Also, you can always make the flexible part rigid again by simply click on Make Part Rigid in the FeatureManager design tree.
Tianshuo Sun
Application Engineer
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