Clock Movement Animation W/ SolidWorks 2008

[benccollins]

this great, thanks!

[dollarvwj]

Hi i am making a clock on solidworks too. I was wondering if you could tell me how you put clock hands on. thanks

[Horologicalguy]

@dollarvwj

i'm not sure I understand your question. do you mean how to attach them or how to make them move?

[dollarvwj]

@Horologicalguy

how to attach them?

[Horologicalguy]

@dollarvwj

Ok, the arbor and hand parts are constructed on their respective part origins. In the assembly, using mates, align the plans of the hands with the corresponding plans of the arbors. So, when you rotate the arbor the hand moves with it. Hope that helped.

[dollarvwj]

@Horologicalguy

Thank you!! I have another question. How did you know which gear to mate the clock hands to? I have all my gears mated to each other, i just do not know where to place my clock hands.

[Horologicalguy]

@dollarvwj

I worked backwards and made a couple temporary mates. Let’s just look at the minute hand first, I mated the hand to its shaft and temporarily fixed the minute hand in a vertical position (12:00). Then I mated the shaft to the gear and then the next gear and the next and so on. Then temporarily mate the hour hand in the vertical position and repeat the process working backwards. Once the two hands are set to 12:00 I deleted the two temporary mates. Does that make sense?

[dollarvwj]

@Horologicalguy

Yeah that makes sense. Thank you! So are your two hands on the same shaft?

[Horologicalguy]

@dollarvwj

There are differences in how these hands are attached but there are always two different shafts. This clock shows a brass tube with the hour hand press over it. Sticking out of the brass tube is a steel shaft that has a square end on it to accept the minute hand.

[dollarvwj]

@Horologicalguy

Ok I got it. What kind of mate did you use or how did you make sure that the hour hand shaft and minute hand shaft spun corresponding to their specific gears? Hopefully this makes sense.

[Horologicalguy]

@dollarvwj

First make a series of tangent mates to lock the gear teeth against each other. This sets the starting point for the gears. Then without moving the gears, delete or suppress the tangent mates. Then in advanced mates you can make a series of gear mates based on ratio. Make sure to choose the correct direction for each gear ration mate. You’re good to go.

[uturniaphobic]

hey! the forth dimension in three D. very cool! thanks for sharing!

[twotontommi]

That is AWESOME!!! I've done rather rudimentary animation videos compared to this. Bro my professional hat is off to you fo sho!!!

[Horologicalguy]

Very kind. Thank You!

[jesussavesinner]

thnaks

[spider87]

This video is amazing! I need to go find this solidworks program. Awesome work man!

[rasoros]

ya, that's really nice. Did you say how long it took to render in photoworks?

[Horologicalguy]

It took forever. My PC couldn't handle the whole photoworks animation in one shot. So, I made a series of 5-10 second segments and spliced it all together. Thanks so much!

[jonsibley]

cool! great work and thanks for the info