Hello Johan,
Thank you, once again, for helping me. I am traveling this weekend and won't be back in front of my desktop machine with System Modeler until Monday. I will play with this and look at your model then.
I did think about the solution you suggested, but was hoping to find a way to get the force on the prismatic joint without having to re-run the model. I'm wondering if this approach will be cumbersome in the future when I'm looking at more complex mechanisms, want to run many "what if" scenarios, or use Mathematica with System Modeler to optimize some aspect of the system.
I tried to use the prismatic flanges with a parallel translational force input (hoping that I could actually use it as an output), but got an error message. I wonder if there's another object that I might use in parallel with prismatic flanges to get the force directly from a model "driven" at the resolute. I'll experiment more Monday with this.
I'll look at your model when I have access to System Modeler, but right now I'm wondering about the all positive values of force in the Revolute Prismatic plot. The force in the prismatic should be compressive (negative) as the mass is accelerated and then tensile (positive) as the mass decelerates. Later, when friction is added to the model, the forces will be modified. With the present frictionless model, I'm expecting to see a sign change in the prismatic force since it starts off pushing on the mass to accelerate it and then finishes by pulling on the mass to slow it down.
Again many thanks for helping me get my arms around modeling within the tool. Your generosity is very much appreciated.
-Dave
