I am trying to add a default mate reference to a weld nut so that I can drag and drop this into assemblies. When I select an existing circular edge and add the mate reference it works fine but I need to have the mate applied tangent to the projection surface so I added a split line to break the surface and add the mate reference there and it will not snap in place in the assembly now. Does anyone know of a way to make this work?
So what I ended up having to do was to create a cut extrude on the part and add the mate reference to the edge created by the cut. I put the cut in with a minimal thickness (0.00001") so that it is not noticeable on the part.
Hi Casey,
You may want to consider creating the reference edge/normal face out of surface reference geometry that can then be hidden after the reference is applied. You won't need to actually modify the geometry and have it calculated in the GA since I'm assuming there will be many instances of this part in assemblies.
I had originally tried to do this (using a split line). Any reference geometry that I added would not allow the part to be dropped into an assembly and get the concentric mate along with the coincident mate at the same time. I work with our VAR and this was the only thing that we could come up with.
Could you create the simple body geometry then if the surfaces won't work? The idea/intent is that this geometry is not part of the geometry needed to display with the part.
I had tried making a surface body that went down to where I needed and adding the mate reference to that geometry but it would not work either. I think this is what you were describing. If not, can you show this on the part? I literally tried everything that I could think of to make this work.
Casey,
Please see the attached file for reference. The difference is that this Mate Reference geometry is hidden and doesn't modify the existing part.
I see what you are saying now Don, that would work as well.
So what I ended up having to do was to create a cut extrude on the part and add the mate reference to the edge created by the cut. I put the cut in with a minimal thickness (0.00001") so that it is not noticeable on the part.