I am calling on your design and assembly knowledge for my current project on Solidworks.
Before reading on, please open the image file it will greatly help to understand my problem.
I'm trying to find out how to constrain (and maybe even parameterize upstream) my assembly so that the panels (in blue on the "zoom" image file) are considered "flexible" and follow the trajectory represented by the curve (you can see the curve on the "overview" file).
During the kinematics, the panels will alternate phases where they will be completely flat, and others where they will "wrap" around the wheel driving the whole.
After some research on the forum I saw that you could make a sub-assembly flexible but not a part-type component. So I created my sub-assembly of profiled panel etc that I make flexible but when I want to add a trajectory constraint to the vertices of the panel by forcing them to follow the curve, the constraint on the 2nd vertex fails since it is obviously not considered flexible (Solidworks asks me to break other constraints and it breaks them ^^).
I have the impression that there is a misunderstanding of the term flexible. For sub-assemblies, we speak more of "flexible" sub-assemblies. By default, a subset is "rigid".
unfortunately this does not solve my problem since the panel is well repeated following the curve but the panel does not bend... I'm posting a screenshot that will be more explicit.
I actually want the orange edge to follow the trajectory curve (in blue and gray on the photo). As said above, it has a phase where the edge will be a straight line (and the flat panel) and another phase where the edge will be a curve (and the panel will flex by wrapping around the drive wheel)
And indeed PhilippeB the word is not flexible but flexible... I checked "flexible" in the properties of the subset but I don't have the impression that it changes much.
Now I think all you have to do is make configurations in the room (straight/curved) and choose the configuration for each instance of the repetition (which will also allow you to manage your step).
I see a small potential contradiction in your first drawing. I'm talking here about the handwritten remark {{Supposed to be bolted}}. If these two areas are bolted together, well nothing will be able to turn, everything will get stuck.
With the other images, and in particular the one from your last post which is much more enlightening: we can say that your problem is simple to solve.
Just treat this as a string. There is a function provided for this purpose in solidworks.
Just think of your blue piece from the last photo as a link since the blue piece is guided by two rollers on a chain track. On the other hand, you must provide in your sheet metal work some kind between the blue part upstream and the one downstream, since you will have a sliding of several centimeters between the flat edges and the one in the bend. Be careful, the side cannot be straight but curved.
From my point of view, you have to develop a chain whose articulation is in the middle of the two rollers and that's it. Simply and above all mechanically because this thing has to run for a very long time. Look at what escalators do, if you have it near you or draw on your memory ;-)
Zozo I agree with you, but this solution already exists (unfortunately I can't say more, although you seem to me to be already well informed on the subject). I agree with your other remarks, I am really in the study phase and the final solution will indeed be far from it. I'll try to adapt your idea of the chain constraint.
In reality my question boils down to: is there a function or constraint in solidworks that would allow you to tell an edge of a block to follow a "slotted hole" type trajectory? I can already imagine the answer because indeed if such a function exists, it implies that the software knows how to deform the part, which is not a given...
Thank you for your time.
PS: Mr Lynkoa, I had already reported it but it would be nice to be able to check several posts as "this answer solved my problem" because sometimes several posts lead to finding the solution.
and while at it, the author can close a question or delete it (if it exists I haven't found it.)
That's what I said, there is a misunderstanding about the term "flexible".
Fexible subassembly does not mean that your part will warp (the term chosen by Solidworks may not be the best). The term "flexible" indicates that the movements of your subassembly will be "released" when it is inserted into an assembly.
Read the link to the help I put above to understand the nuance.
It is possible to hook an edge on a line with an oblong shape, just as it is possible for this edge to follow a patatoid trajectory (far from the principle of cams although a little different).
This is what is used, for example, to make a cardboard box follow a path on non-linear roller trays or to simulate a soft cable that deforms when a cabinet door is closed.
To go along with @Philippe B's remark, you will note that our favorite software is called Solidworks and not flexiWorks, which means that the software does not know how to treat soft or deformable parts in an elastic way such as latex.
If you really need the part to deform (like a flat sheet metal that flexes with a harard (I'm good there!)) you have to do it differently.
In this case, you need to have a rigido-solid part (which SW knows how to do) to make the plans on the one hand and on the other hand and independently a part that is made flexible by certain capillo-tracted artifices. But in this case, the objective is more to make an almost realistic rendering than to make parts intended for machining. In this case, two pieces must be made.