This has got a little messy but I have left it as is so you can see what I have tried. I know there must be an easy way to do this but I can't see it.
I am trying to align the spring with the silencers. I am trying to do this with mates but it just tells me that the selected mates are not in alignment. This I know and is the reason why I am using mates is to try to align the two parts.
I have tried aligning with planes and with a construction line but still no joy.
Thanks for looking, Daniel.
Daniel,
We can't open the Assembly without having the Part files. Please Pack and Go the Assembly to a zip folder and post it here.
I am sorry Glen, it was a silly mistake. please see the attached.
Many thanks, Daniel.
Okay, I have your files open, but I'm afraid I don't have a clue what you're trying to do. Can you please explain further?
Yes please clarify what "align the spring with the silencers" means...
Are you familiar with reference Axis? I would make one through the center of your Spring, then use this to mate to the Cylinders. I am assuming the Spring needs to be concentric with the cylinders?
Reference Axis, like a Reference Plane.
Mark Kaiser wrote:
I am assuming the Spring needs to be concentric with the cylinders?
That was my thought, but that would be easy enough to do in his Assembly. His Front and Right Planes in the Spring and in one of the parts in the cylinder are going down the center of each, so two coincident mates would accomplish that. However, there's an Angle mate that would have to be suppressed or deleted to allow that to happen.
Thank you for all your answers. I am too well aware that I have difficulty doing stuff that you guys find easy.
I did try to get an axis in the spring but I failed to do this in the assembly. Following the advice here, I tried again and finally got an axis in there in the part. This successfully aligned the spring so it ran parallel to the middle silencer.
Thank you again for all the replies.
Daniel.
Yes. As a general rule, put your reference geometry in at the part level, not the assembly level. Then, you can use the references created in the parts to mate them to each other.
Are you familiar with reference Axis? I would make one through the center of your Spring, then use this to mate to the Cylinders. I am assuming the Spring needs to be concentric with the cylinders?
Reference Axis, like a Reference Plane.