Coords and Ports
A Coord is a local coordinate system that you can attach to parts in the CAD Workspace. Coords are converted to ports when they are imported into MapleSim. These ports allow you to connect your CAD subsystems to multibody components so that you can build and simulate your CAD assembly in MapleSim.
In the CAD Workspace, Coords are displayed as a circle with a perpendicular line coming out of the center of the circle. The circle represents the X-Y plane of the Coord and the perpendicular line is its Z-axis (in blue).
Tip: You can change the size of the coordinate indicator. For more about this setting, see Setting Display Settings.
The following table shows the relationship between Coords in the CAD Workspace and the ports that are generated from them.
The figure to the right shows a part in the CAD workspace (rod) with two Coords attached to it (coord_1 and coord_2).
When rod is converted to a CAD subsystem, the CAD subsystem has two ports attached to it (one for each of the Coords). The ports have the same names as the Coords (that is, coord_1 and coord_2).
Tip: In the Model Workspace, when you place your pointer over a port, it becomes highlighted and a tooltip appears with the name of the port.
The figure on the right shows rod in the 3-D Workspace.
Each port has an axis in the 3-D Workspace.
The position and orientation of Coords in the CAD Workspace is important for generating accurate simulations of a CAD assembly due to the following:
The orientation of a Coord determines how the CAD subsystem is oriented in the 3-D Workspace and 3-D Playback Window. For details on how coordinate orientation is determined, see Coordinate Orientation.
When you connect two CAD subsystems to the same component, the ports of the CAD subsystems must be matched ports (that is, a coordinate and a reference coordinate) in order to preserve the geometry of the CAD assembly and get an accurate simulation. For more details, see Adding a Reference Coordinate.
The ports on a CAD subsystem are placed depending on the position of their corresponding coordinates with respect to the center of the workspace of the CAD Toolbox when the icon image is captured. For example,
In this figure, the part is oriented with one of its coordinates (G) to the left of the center of the workspace and the other to the right. When the part is converted to a CAD subsystem, the image matches what was seen in the Feature Detect window and its ports are placed one on the left side and one on the right side of the CAD subsystem.
See Also
Adding a Coordinate
Building Models with CAD Subsystems
Coords and the Orientation of a CAD Subsystem
MapleSim CAD Toolbox Overview
Setting Display Settings
The MapleSim Window
Visualizing a 3-D Model
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