Take a deep dive into assembling a model using joints and as-built joints with this informative article. Learn how to manipulate your model to create realistic structures, understanding the importance of accurately placing joints for a more efficient modeling process.
Key Insights
- The article showcases a detailed process of using joints and as-built joints to assemble a model, with an emphasis on achieving a grounded base and connected arms.
- It emphasizes the need to control the movement of different component parts, by placing rigid joints between components that should not move relative to each other.
- It also highlights the importance of grounding models to prevent them from moving freely around the screen, demonstrating the process by grounding the base component of a model.
In this video, we will use joints and as-built joints to assemble our model. I will open up Step 4: Joints.
When my file is open, I will close the data panel. We want to assemble this model so that the base is grounded, the arms are all connected together, and we get a good shape so that when we model our lampshade, the lamp looks more realistic. So let's get started.
It is okay if I leave the top component as my active component when placing joints. First, let's place a rigid as-built joint between these two arms. They do not move relative to one another, so we can place a rigid joint.
I will go to Assemble > As-Built Joint, and I will select these two components. We can now see them move with the earthquake animation, meaning that they will be rigid to each other, and I’ll click OK. Now as I click and drag, those two components move with one another.
I’ll zoom in, and we can place a Revolute joint between these two components. I will go to Assemble > As-Built Joint and change my type to Revolute. This will be my first component, this will be my second component, and holding CTRL, I will find the center of this circle as my position.
The joint will animate, and it looks good to me, so I’ll click OK. Let's place another as-built joint here, so I will go to Assemble > As-Built Joint. Revolute is correct, this will be my first, and this will be my second component. Again, holding CTRL, I’ll find the center of that circle, and my joint will animate.
Again, that looks great, so we’ll click OK. Next, we need to ground our base, because you can see, if I click and drag, my model will move freely around the screen. Go to the base component, and right-click > Ground.
Now our component is grounded, and we can animate our joints and place them in different positions. I will double-click on my joint, set this to -20 degrees, and set the other to 90 degrees. Capture your position so that you can revert back to that position.
We now need to place a joint between this component and this component. So I will go to Joint. Again, holding CTRL, I will select the center of this circle, then zoom out and orbit, and select the center of the circle on this face. My joint will move my lampshade arm component, and I will rotate this so that it says 70 degrees, and press Enter.
I’ll return to the Home view, and my model is now fully joined and looks like it’s in the correct position. I can test this by moving my model and reverting it, and it looks like this is the correct position for my model. The last thing we want to do is group our joints in our timeline, so I will hold Shift, select my joints, as-built joints, grounding, and position capture, right-click > Create Group.
Go ahead and save the file, and in the next video, we will bring in our bulb assembly, place a joint origin, and join it to our model. I’ll see you in the next video.
