I have a complex assembly with moving parts and I want to create a volume that encompasses all the areas in the 3D space where the moving parts occupy.  This volume is essentially a keepout zone...i.e. don't put anything here or the mechanism will collide with it.  I highly doubt there is any tool that will do this for me, but maybe someone has ran into this need before and has a solution?

The parts and movements are complex so it is not straightforward to just make a solid part from scratch...it would take a lot of work.  I haven't tried it yet, but one thought I had was to save the moving parts as a joined solid body for multiple locations in the path, then combine all those bodies into one.  Essentially taking a snapshot at each location of the movement.  How "smooth" the volume is will depend on how many snapshots I take.  Seems like it will work, although it will take some time to do.

Any other ideas?