Accurate simulation of complex mechanical system
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2019 1:39 pm
Hello,
I'd like to simlate a complex mechanical system (a kind of clockwork automaton, lots of gears, cams and levers).
I already have some code to generate shapes for 3D printing using constructive geometry (OpenCascade/PyOCC). Ideally I would like to take the output of that and feed it into simulation to see how the parts fit together and operate (see pic for a small example). The goal for it to be as generic as possible, that is, to avoid adding explicit kinematinc constraints and rely on collision shape interaction whenever possible.
I have some questions:
1. Is it possible?
2. What are the practical limits on the number of interacting parts, number of collision shapes per part, size/mass ratios of individual parts?
3. I understand default collision margin is 0.04. If that refers to 4% of linear size of the object, that is way too much. Is there a way to reduce it significantly?
4. What is the "proper" way of representing complex concave collision shapes such as involute gears?
5. What parameters/design choices are there to improve reliability at the expense of performance? (I can live with it being non real-time)
Regards,R.
I'd like to simlate a complex mechanical system (a kind of clockwork automaton, lots of gears, cams and levers).
I already have some code to generate shapes for 3D printing using constructive geometry (OpenCascade/PyOCC). Ideally I would like to take the output of that and feed it into simulation to see how the parts fit together and operate (see pic for a small example). The goal for it to be as generic as possible, that is, to avoid adding explicit kinematinc constraints and rely on collision shape interaction whenever possible.
I have some questions:
1. Is it possible?
2. What are the practical limits on the number of interacting parts, number of collision shapes per part, size/mass ratios of individual parts?
3. I understand default collision margin is 0.04. If that refers to 4% of linear size of the object, that is way too much. Is there a way to reduce it significantly?
4. What is the "proper" way of representing complex concave collision shapes such as involute gears?
5. What parameters/design choices are there to improve reliability at the expense of performance? (I can live with it being non real-time)
Regards,R.