RhinoAssembly from LEDAS is a new and
powerful tool for assembly design and
kinematic simulation within Rhino.

Although Rhino Assembly has the capabilities of
mainstream mechanical CAD packages the
interface is extremely elegant and unobtrusive
and as such the Rhino workflow is not
compromised.

With RhinoAssembly you can create 3D rigid
parts in Rhino and easily position them with
respect to each other by specifying assembly
constraints between their faces and edges as
follows:

Fixation
Concentricity
Coincidence
Parallelism
Perpendicularity
Tangency
Rigid Sets
Driving Dimensions (Distance & Angle)

RhinoAssembly automatically satisfies all
constraints and dimensions making a consistent
assembly from existing parts. An assembled
mechanism can then be animated by varying a
parameter of one or more of its driving
dimensions.



Any built-in or plug-in rendering module for
Rhino can be used to generate a sequence of
image files corresponding to key frames of the
animated mechanism. The images can be
converted to a movie with one of many free or
commercial software packages available on the
market.

The Rhino Assembly 'Assembly Manager' tool
allows easy navigation over all assembly
constraints and driving dimensions imposed on
geometric elements of a designed model.




RhinoAssembly Toolbar

The RhinoAssembly tools can be accessed
through the RhinoAssembly toolbar or by typing
the corresponding commands at Rhino's
command prompt. The toolbar buttons and
commands are described below.

Creating Assembly Constraints and
Driving Dimensions

To create assemblies, constraints and driving
dimensions are added to 3D parts that already
exist in the drawing. The constraints and driving
dimensions are attached to the edges and faces
of polysurfaces. To place a constraint, enter the
command that corresponds to the desired type
of constraint (or click the corresponding button
on the RhinoAssembly toolbar), and then select
the edges or surfaces by clicking on them in
Rhino's working area.

RhinoAssembly works with the following types of Geometric Elements:

• Basic edges of polysurfaces:
• straight edges and circular arcs

• Basic faces of polysurfaces:
• faces of planar, cylindrical, or spherical
• geometry, including trimmed faces.

• Isolated objects: single points, straight
• segments, and circular arcs (not
• including those that are parts of
• polylines).

Rhino Assembly provides the following types of constraints:

• Concentricity
• Supported Elements:
• Point, Circle, Cylinder, Sphere

• Coincidence
• Supported Elements:




• Parallelism
• Supported Elements:
• Line, Plane, Circle, Cylinder

• Perpendicularity
• Supported Elements:
• Line, Plane, Circle, Cylinder

• Tangency
• Supported Elements:
• Line, Plane, Circle, Cylinder, Sphere

• Distance
• Supported Elements:
• Point, Line, Plane, Circle, Cylinder, Sphere

• Angle
• Supported Elements:
• Line, Plane, Circle, Cylinder

Fixing Objects

Allows objects to be fixed in place. Fixation
prevents objects from moving during
computations performed by RhinoAssembly,
but does not prevent you from moving them.
Fixation can be applied to a whole polysurface,
as well as to part of it, or to a single object.
When a planar face of a polysurface is fixed,
the polysurface may slide along the plane
or may rotate, if you fix a cylindrical face

Creating Rigid Sets

Rigid sets allow simple geometric objects
(e.g. points and lines) to be attached to more
complex ones, such as polylines, curves and
surfaces. When RhinoAssembly moves a
rigid set, it has to satisfy the constraints
imposed on the simple geometry; thus, it also
moves all the complex geometry contained in
the same rigid set. This way you can control the
position of curves, polylines and even light
sources.





The RhinoAssembly Manager

RhinoAssembly Manager allows you to view,
edit and delete the constraints you created,
and to manage the animation of the dimensions.

When you select a constraint in the
RhinoAssembly Manager, the objects linked with
the constraint are highlighted in Rhino's working
area. Similarly, when you select geometry in the
drawing, the related constraints are shown in
boldface in the RhinoAssembly Manager.

The RhinoAssembly Manager is dockable.

Editing Constraints and
Driving Dimensions Properties

Editing constraints and driving dimension properties is done through the Constraint Properties. Simply double click on an item in the RhinoAssembly Manager to bring up the Constraint Properties dialog.

Animation

RhinoAssembly allows 3D models and
assemblies to be animated by varying the
parameters of a single and multiple driving
dimensions.



When single or multiple dimensions are
animated, the Animation Control Panel
appears. The panel controls the animation and facilitates navigation through the frames.