Available in: Assembly

Relate a Mate with a rotational degree of freedom to a Mate with a linear degree of freedom.

A Rack and pinion relation combines a rotational degree of freedom of a revolute Mate with a linear degree of freedom of a slider Mate to create realistic rack and pinion motion. To create a rack and pinion relation, select the Rack and pinion relation from the toolbar, then select the revolute and slider Mates that constrain your rack and pinion gears. The next step is to define the amount of linear travel. For every rotation of the pinion gear, the rack moves in a linear direction by the input amount.

To have the movement of both Rack and pinion in the opposite direction to one another, click the Reverse checkbox.

When done, click the green checkmark to exit the dialog.

To add the Rack and Pinion relation:

  1. Click Rack and Pinion relation feature icon.

    Example of Rack and pinion relation tool dialog

  2. In the dialog, confirm that Rack and pinion is selected.
  3. Select two Mates in the main list of Mate features (or in the list of features in any of the current subassemblies). Note that selecting a Slider Mate and a Revolute Mate provides the exact degrees of freedom required by Rack and pinion.
  4. Specify a degree of freedom for that Mate, if necessary:
    1. When you select a Slider Mate and a Revolute Mate, no further action is needed because each has the exact degree of freedom required by Rack and pinion.
    2. If you select Mates with more degrees of freedom than required, a second dialog appears in which to select the desired degree of freedom for that Mate.
  5. Enter the desired linear value.
  6. Optionally check the box to reverse the direction.

Once you select a degree of freedom for the relation, you are unable to change it unless you delete the Mate from the dialog, change the Mate type, or delete the Mate and start over.