Information about using this package is available from the notes written by Neill Hughes, which can be accessed from the Index to Online Documentation - in the links below the green block of module links.

There are a few points that need to be considered in addition to those in the notes to make life easier.

1) Before the motion analysis can be carried out the components have to be assembled. This is almost invariably easier if only half (or even a quarter) of each component is modeled.

2) How parts are brought into the assembly, or the order, does not seem to matter.

3) Where there is a shaft to be fitted into a bush, it is usually easier to do the 'Mate', 'Concentric' first. The shaft can then be moved the appropriate distance into the bush using the 'Mate', 'Coincident' command. This is when it is vital to have the parts split on the appropriate centre line. An example of this is fitting a gudgeon pin into a piston and connecting rod. The flat end of the pin can not be made coincident with the curved outer surface of the piston, whereas if the two parts were cut on the centre line so that the pin was cut across its diameter half way along the pin length, then the cut 'section' faces can be made 'coincident'. It is then easy to fit the half connecting rod to the half length gudgeon pin.

David J Grieve, 22nd January 2006.