SOLIDWORKS 2020 - How to Make Flexible Part

[@edharris1947]

Can you do a spinoff version of this video where the part flexes rather than resizes? It will flatten as you pull the ends apart.

[@geevnahal7926]

Jacob, this is only a remake! Flexible mean the overall length stays the same, only the shape deforms and gets stretched.

[@sphaxxhaps3628]

Ah, people in the comments seem to have a little difficulty understanding the difference between mechanical flexibility and the name that Solidworks chose - flexible - (adaptive in Inventor) that is used to make a part automatically change dimensions according to external constraints. Great tutorial though, the additional plane to make the part usable in other assemblies was the highlight.

[@OcmeoXoHgPo3]

additionally it needs to fix the length of the bracket and max distance of second part, imo.

[@believeornot12]

I think the concept is not practical. Flexible part should not change the size of the part. It should just change the shape. Yours changed the size.

[@goengineer]

The Design intent of the flexible component is important Like the spring and the boots examples show early in the video. Those parts on changes in shape. However it is easy to imagine a situation where you may have custom straps that are cut on a job by job basis. The flexible part allows you to easily cut the strapping for different scenarios.

[@michellehuang6088]

This is not how physics work. A flexible part should FLEX without changing its mass.

[@ArmanCNC]

Agree with you. This is not flex🤫

[@ishkapoor3132]

You can fix the total length of the jig and loosen other constraints to make it practical. The jig will lose the consistent semi circular shape.

[@svampebob007]

yeah I don't get how this is considered flex if you're just adjusting the radius 🤔 Not a bad tutorial, but not exactly accurate, maybe the two "ark" (where it starts to go up) should change, and the radius should shrink as you stretch it... anyway this is way beyond my one week solidworks skills, I'm still trying to really understand how sketch/parts works. 😅

[@scifinn6332]

flexible has another meaning in this context. These "flexible components" are pretty cool, because if you have a part which dimension is determined by another part in the assembly, this can dynamically adjust to the assembly.

[@luispichi88]

@@scifinn6332 I agree. Probably flexibility doesn't mean 'mechanical' flexibility but just the ability to be modified in this case. A bit misleading because it would be great to have a feature for that.

[@lafeire]

Can you use this part 2 time (or more) in an assembly with 2 different size?

[@goengineer]

Yes, in fact the whole idea is that it can change size for any assembly, without the need to dig into the sketch level for resizing, and can use the automatic rebuild to see if you need add clearances without measuring, rebuild, guess and check or creating additional external references. Once you have the size you need, perform a Save as Copy and Continue or Save as Copy and Open. Additionally, you can create configurations for the sizes you want to lock down, then in SOLIDWORKS 2020 and beyond, you can even save specific configurations as separate parts. In addition, the ‘Virtual Jig’ and techniques displayed in the video can be reused to create any additional ‘flexible’ part. If you intend to make your part ‘flexible’, double the check that the initial mass is the same as the final position of the flexible part mass in mass properties.

[@leonardoarciniegas3759]

I am trying to make an adjustable link as smart component by selecting circular surfaces/edes of the 2 parts to be connected on an assembly. Any suggestions? I am lost.

[@goengineer]

In order to adjust the linkage with 2 parts connected in an assembly, the edge/face would have to be controlled by a sketch.

[@TROYOSTRANDER]

Can an flexible instance be captured in a drawing?

[@goengineer]

Troy, at the moment there is not a good way to capture this dynamically in a drawing. You could make configurations showing different lengths or of a compressed vs relaxed.

[@f.j.bradman1761]

this really doesn't have much of practical use , in real life the part won't grow in size so freely as it only stretch of retract .

[@rat_king-]

This is rescalable, not flexible.