Linkage Program

I decided to spend a few minutes tonight implementing a Direct2D renderer for the Linkage program. After a few failed attempts a year ago, I finally got it right and am able to draw lines. Just lines. Nothing more – no circles or text or anything else. And…

I had a user send me a mechanism that they thought should work. It turns out that none of the connectors were forming connections between links. I plan on making a tutorial about common problems like this and I’m writing this post in order to help those who…

I enhanced the Linkage “join” feature to join connectors and links. If a connector and a link are selected, the connector becomes part of that selected link. If three connectors and two links are selected, all three connectors become one, followed by that connector becoming part of both…

It’s on YouTube and it’s here: Video Tutorial 1

I’m playing around with the Parts List and I’m not sure how to draw some dimensions. Actuators are something that I’ve never bought. I suspect that the overall start length is important as is the amount of throw needed. But someone would probably design a backhoe so that…

Parts List New Features and Changes   The Parts List (in the picture above) Small change to ground dimensions in regular view when there is a link connecting all of the anchors in the mechanism. Added simulation capability for sliding link being positioned by another sliding connector. Some…

I added a cool feature to the Parts List to make it draw a ground link. But I also gave the code the ability to not draw the ground link if it is redundant to an actual link in the mechanism. This new code also allowed me to…

The parts list feature is almost done in the Linkage program. Parts List The parts list is a view of the mechanism where each link is shown in a “horizontal” position in a vertical list with all of the other links. This has been a challenging feature to…

A user contacted me with a mechanism that was not simulating properly. It became clear right when I saw it what was wrong; a link must have two sliding connectors on the same path to just slide. Links that have a single sliding connector can rotate around some…

There were a few bugs in recent versions of the Linkage program. there was an uninitialized variable related to a hidden feature that I’m working on, and a count problem when moving gears. Wow, it’s getting to be a complicated beast. Anyhow, the sample mechanism in the picture…