Mechanism Design with Creo Elements/Pro 5.0

Book excerpt: Mechanism Design with Creo Elements/Pro 5.0 is designed to help you become familiar with Mechanism Design, a module in the Creo Elements/Pro (formerly Pro/ENGINEER) software family, which supports modeling and analysis (or simulation) of mechanisms in a virtual (computer) environment. Capabilities in Mechanism Design allow users to simulate and visualize mechanism performance. Using Mechanism Design early in the product development stage could prevent costly redesign due to design defects found in the physical testing phase; therefore, contributing to a more cost effective, reliable, and efficient product development process. The book is written following a project-based learning approach and covers the major concepts and frequently used commands required to advance readers from a novice to an intermediate level. Basic concepts discussed include: model creation, such as body and joint definitions; analysis type selection, such as static (assembly) analysis, kinematics and dynamics; and results visualization. The concepts are introduced using simple, yet realistic, examples. Verifying the results obtained from computer simulation is extremely important. One of the unique features of this textbook is the incorporation of theoretical discussions for kinematic and dynamic analyses in conjunction with simulation results obtained using Mechanism Design. The theoretical discussions simply support the verification of simulation results rather than providing an in-depth discussion on the subjects of kinematics and dynamics.