LabVIEW and Solidworks/COSMOS Motion

[kent.wedeking]

the last i heard was that they are releasing the new toolkit at NIWeek this year.  they are redoing the whole thing, and it will operate i believe more like pointing to an FPGA or realtime target.  but those are only rumors i've heard from my DSM.  in the meantime, i've grabbed a copy of SW2007 from my reseller, and if i ever get a chance i'll load that so i can start playing around with it ...

[bnoronha]

Using LabVIEW 8.6 and Solidworks 2007 I was able to run the demons without a problem, modify move paterns, contours, straight line, arc moves, the whole nine yards!!!

HOWEVER: 

I'm trying to run the Solidworks toolkit on a my own CAD drawing where I only have rotation in one axis. I labled it Axis 1 and set up the movement as "spline" and put in coordinates in increments of 0,01 seconds and calculated the degrees so that the I reproduce an angular aceleration followed by steady speed. In CosmosMotion it runs fine.

The problem is when I try to execute the movement VIs in LabVIEW 8.6, I receive an error message (Error 97 occurred at Unknown System Error in SW Load Motion Profile.vi->Run COSMOSMotion Simulation.vi->Untitled 1).
 
I put down Just the straight line move with Rotation Z selected. and conected this to the Run Cosmosmotion Simulation VI
 
I've tried rotation in X, Y and Z. Tried using velocity mode and still nothing.
 
I can run the demonstration without a problem and if I used the solidworks drawings provided I can make any movement I want (straight line, arc, contour).
 
Did I forget to define something in LabVIEW or Solidworks or did I do a step wrong?

If anyone has any ideas I'm all ears.

Thanks!
 

[scottcolston]

Make sure that the Axis name (Axis 1) and the movement type (rotation Z) are defined both in LabVIEW ans SolidWorks and are named exactly the same.

[Juurma]

Hi!

I am having the same problem as the person in the previous post. The Mechatronics toolkit is working excellent with the exapmles. Also with my own model. However, as soon as I wanted to use the velocity mode  it started to give errors. When I put the axis into say Rotate Z, velocity, spline mode simialrly to the displacement mode I get Error -2147024809 for some parameter. And the strange thing is, that when I check the axis configutation in SW it has been changed fom the velocity spline mode to constant displacement mode.

On the other hand, the problem may be that I am only guessing here how to use it, because I have not been able to find any example about how to use the velocity mode correctly (yet it is important as when simultaing motors, the function output usually is angular velocity).

Best regards,

Mart

[DaveMerr]

Hi Juurma,

Any luck figuring out the velocity mode?

I'm trying to control a motor using velocity mode which is connected with a coupler to a linear actuator, i could use displacment mode on the actuator and couple from back to the motor but that just wouldn't be right.

Also has anyone figured out the most efficient way to set up a series of individual moves and then step through them in sequence?

The unreleased webcasts seemed to elude to all this i.e. PLC interfacing, PID tuning etc. just wondering if anyone has managed to move things on from the existing examples? 

Regards,

Dave 

[BMac]

The old "alpha" mechatronics toolkit was only supported with SolidWorks 2007. We do not recommend using the alpha toolkit anymore. The official version of the LabVIEW-SolidWorks interface is now released. It is called the NI SoftMotion Module for SolidWorks and works with SolidWorks 2009 Service Pack 2.1 or higher.

NI SoftMotion for SolidWorks enables mechanical, electrical and control engineers to collaborate by creating a digital prototype of the motion control system that integrates mechanical simulation, motion control software, and sensor feedback. As soon as you have a CAD drawing, you can begin prototyping the machine design long before you incur the expense of building a physical machine. The new tools enable you to do thinks like:

• visualize realistic machine operation
• validate and iterate on the mechanical, control and electrical aspects of your design
• estimate the cycle time performance
• check for collisions or other programming mistakes
• calculate force/torque loads for stress analysis 
• select and size motor and mechanical transmission components
• improve communication between the engineers on your team and with customers

The following software versions are required:

• LabVIEW 2009 (32-bit) or later

• LabVIEW NI SoftMotion Module Standard or Premium

• SolidWorks 2009 Service Pack 2.1 or later and SolidWorks Motion Simulation with the Motion Simulation add-in enabled from the Tools menu in SolidWorks. This is included with SolidWorks Premium, Simulation Premium, or Simulation Professional. When you enable the Motion Simulation add-in from the Add-Ins dialog box in SolidWorks, place a checkmark in both the left and right checkboxes so you don’t have to reenable the add-in each time you use NI SoftMotion for SolidWorks.

For more information, visit this site:

http://www.ni.com/digitalprototyping/

Here's a few other resources to get you started. 

LabVIEW-SolidWorks Digital Prototyping Training (see the topic called "Motion Control Timing and Sequencing")

Getting Started Guide for NI SoftMotion for SolidWorks

Here are links to the evaluation versions of LabVIEW and the NI SoftMotion Module for SolidWorks:

LabVIEW 2009

NI SoftMotion Module (includes a 30 day evaluation license for NI SoftMotion for SolidWorks)

Contact your local SolidWorks reseller to upgrade your SolidWorks software to SolidWorks Premium (which includes the required SolidWorks Motion Simulation capability) or to request an evaluation version of SolidWorks:

http://www.solidworks.com/sw/contact.htm

[BMac]

Following up on the velocity mode questions-- NI SoftMotion for SolidWorks does support velocity mode. Just right click on your Straight Line Move function block and navigate to Select Method>Velocity. This executes the straight-line move at the specified velocity until a Stop Move is commanded, a limit is encountered, or you execute a move at a new velocity. You do not specify target positions in velocity mode. The direction of motion is determined by the sign of the specified velocity.

Here's a few other resources to get you started. 

LabVIEW-SolidWorks Digital Prototyping Training (see the topic called "Motion Control Timing and Sequencing". The event based logic demonstration uses a velocity move, which stops the move when the proximity sensor is encountered.)

Getting Started Guide for NI SoftMotion for SolidWorks 

By the way, to find shipping examples that demonstrate all of the different motion commands available, launch LabVIEW 2009 and navigate to Help>Find Examples. Then in the Example Finder go to Toolkits and Modules>Motion Control>NI SoftMotion. You can find SolidWorks specific examples under the Mechatronics>SolidWorks subfolder. Actually, though, you can open any of the shipping examples and copy the VIs into a project you have set up to target a SolidWorks assembly. For example, you could open the Coordinate Straight Line Move example project and copy the Coordinate Straight Line Move.vi into the project you are using for digital prototyping with SolidWorks. Or you could add a SolidWorks assembly to the project (right-click on My Computer). Then you just click on the motion axis and select Bind to Different Resource to change the binding from a Simulated Axis to a SolidWorks motor. Finally, hold down shift or control to select all of the motion items in the project (including My Computer) and then right-click and Deploy. Normally, since this is your first deployment it will start the SolidWorks simulation running and so your are ready to run the LabVIEW shipping example. If not, right-click on My Computer and select Utilities>Scan Engine Mode>Switch to Active.

Notes:

• Most of the shipping examples assume you are using a stepper motor without the axes scaled to degrees or millimeters. However, motion control with SolidWorks always assumes rotary motors are controlled with degree units for rotary motors or millimeter units for linear motors. So you'll normally want to use a smaller number than the default values for the position command. For example, in the Coordinate Straight Line Move.vi example I changed the position commands from 10000, 7500, 5000 (steps) to 100, 75, 50 (millimeters).
• For faster simulation performance, you may want to increase the Scan Period from 5 ms to 10 ms when simulating with SolidWorks. To do this, right-click on My Computer and go to Properties. Then in the Scan Engine tab and set the Scan Period to 10 ms. Finally, select all of the motion items in the project and deploy again. 
• You can only have one LabVIEW project open and connected to a SolidWorks assembly at a time. If you get an Access Denied error when trying to deploy, close any other open projects.