ME 431 - Kinematic Synthesis of Mechanisms

Performing Two Position Synthesis in the Solidworks Environment

1) Open a part file. On the frontal plane set up a drawing sheet. On this sheet draw the two given positions of the rigid
body (in this problem, two positions of a seat is given). Fix these two positions. These are the required two positions.

#1

#2

2) Pick two points CD on the rigid body. These are your reference points /I have picked CD at the two corners.
3) A point A that will be the axis of the revolute joint on the rigid body (moving plane must be equidistant to both C
and D. Hence Draw lines C1A1D1 and C2A2D2 and insert relations C1A1= C2A2 and D1A1= D2A2. In this way, when you
hold point A1 with the cursor and move to another location, A2 will also move such that the distance AC and AD is
always the same for the two positions.
4) Construct a point B applying the procedure used for point A (E1B1=E2B2 and F1B1=F2B2)

D1

F1 C2
A1

C1

D2

B1
E1

A2

B2

E2

F2

5) Join A1A2 and B1B2 and draw the perpendicular bisectors a12 and b12. (Insert the relation that A1A2 and a12, B1B2 and
b12 are at right angles). Select a point on a12 which is A0 and a point on b12 which is B0 (fixed pivots).
A0
a12
F1

D1

C2

B1

A1

D2
B0

E1
A2

C1

b12

B2

E2

F2

6) As you change A or B or A0 and B0 you will be obtaining different four-bars that may move the rigid body in
between two positions. In this method you can make several trials in a very fast manner. So obtain a solution satisfying
the requirements for this problem. Obtain the two positions for the four-bar mechanism.

D1

F1

C2

D2

A1

A0
B1

C1

E1
a12

B0
b12

A2

B2
E2
2

F2

7) For the first position, A0A1B1B0 form the four-bar mechanism and A0A2B2B0 form the four-bar mechanism in the
second position.
8) Next, exit this sketch and open another new sketch on the front plane.
9) On this new sketch, draw a quadrilateral which will form A0ABB0.
10) Select A0A of this sheet equal to and A0A1 on the previous sheet. And repeat for B0B (B0B1), AB (A1B1). Also fix
A0 and B0.
11) Now, you can move the four-bar A0ABB0 to see that it moves in between the two positions.

A0

A1
B1

B0

By this way, you can re-open the first sketch from the so called FeatureManager Design Tree and change
your four-bar design (change A0, B0, A1, whatever you want). Then, close the first sketch and re-open the
second sketch to see the movement of modified new four-bar mechanism.
Please note that, after adding the rectangle as a block to your coupler (next page), you cannot perform this
similar procedure. You cannot obtain the modified new mechanism after adding the new block to the coupler.
Therefore, if you wish to add a block to your mechanism (if possible), you should do that after finalizing your
design.

12) To add the rectangle to your four-bar, draw the rectangle and the coupler AB over the first position (black lines).

A
B

Draw these

13) Next, select the rectangle and line AB. Using the Tools-Block-Add from the menu, make the line AB and the
rectangle drawn as one block. Then, make the two relevant points on the coupler coincident.

New Block

14) You can now move the rectangle (or any other shape drawn) from one position to the other and check the motion.