Oscillating Fan Sub-Assy

grabcad

I've been tinkering with the assembly of an existing fan in my home office. I spent considerable time modeling the intricate gears and mechanism that drive its oscillating motion, hoping to bring this action to life in SolidWorks. Unfortunately, it appears that SolidWorks is unable to animate a motor that moves itself within an assembly, particularly in an oscillating fan where the motor is part of the moving assembly. However, if you temporarily remove the mates connecting the crank and then re-enable a mate I named "Lock Oscillation", you can manually rotate the fan blade by dragging it, and see the gears working their magic (after making the gearbox transparent, naturally). But when all the involved mates are enabled, SolidWorks refuses to animate the oscillation – a bit of a letdown.