I've been presented with an interesting request/problem. As part of a sales demostration, a client would like to show Solids Works animation of a cable traveling through a winding pipe with a plethora of bends. Not only that, but they would like the ability to change the trajectory of the cable or the path (i.e. pipe)that it is traveling through. I've experimented with various approaches, but none were successful.
Part of the problem I'm having is that there doesn't seem to be a way of assembling a section of the cable to the curving centerline of the path. For some reason, Solid Works doesn't take to kindly to datum points being assemble to anything other that a straight line. I've tried using Datum points, sketched lines, splines, and axis. None of them are a valid assembly references. So, I'm starting to think my approach is incorrect. At this point all and any help would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks.