SPACEBAR - KINEMATIC DESIGN BY COMPUTER-GRAPHICS

The development of kinematic mechanisms on the design board is often a n extremely complex and time-consuming task. The Spacebar program allo ws the direct design and analysis of mechanisms on the terminal screen . All variables, including linkage geometry, stiffness, and applied lo ading conditions, can be input and/or changed from the terminal. The d ata can be described and displayed in 3D. All mechanism configurations can be cycled through their range of travel, and viewed in their vari ous geometric positions, again in 3D. Output data includes the geometr ic positioning in orthogonal coordinates of each node point in the mec hanism, the velocity and acceleration of the mechanism node points thr oughout its range of travel, and the internal loads and displacements of the individual node points and linkages. All analysis calculations are performed at the VDU, and they take, at most, a few seconds to com plete. Output data can be viewed at the scope, and also printed, at th e discretion of the user.