Animating a four bar mechanism
 

Hi, I have modeled a four bar mechanism for a project i am currently undertaking. (basically a washing up liquid bottle top hinge).

am having problems constraining everything so that it opens and closes perfectly. im quite new to maya and am getting quite confused. everytime i move something, another part flies off at a stupid angle. i want to be able to rotate one bar and the others move and rotate accordingly. i cant just rotate, so i tried using joints, but this doesnt seem to work



can anyone help??????please!!!

I replied to your post on Alias' forum.

Basically, just don't use joints and group or parent everything, then move your pivot point to where you want it to rotate at. You can reselect the group by selecting an object in the group, then pressing the up arrow key or by selecting it in the outliner (Windows>Outliner)

grouping wont work, the whole lot moves around a fixed radius. is there no way to constrain the joints to when i move the top bar, it drags the rest?